Two Georgetown graduates, Mon Mon “Maple” Htet (G’25) and Miranda Xiong (C’25), have been named Yenching Scholars and will pursue a competitive master’s program at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing, China, this fall.
Students in the program will complete an interdisciplinary master’s degree in China studies, focusing on China’s changing role on the global stage. Htet and Xiong join 16 other Hoyas who have been selected for the program.
“I very much enjoyed getting to know Maple and Miranda during this process,” said Bill Cessato, deputy director of the Center for Research & Fellowships. “At Georgetown, they actively pursued their scholarly interests, which were supported by excellent academic programs and meaningful faculty mentorship. I know they will enthusiastically embrace the new opportunities presented by Yenching Academy as they continue developing knowledge in their areas of focus.”
Meet Georgetown’s newest Yenching Scholars and learn more about their passions as they pursue their research interests in China’s capital.
Tracing Migration, Identity and Opportunity
Growing up in Myanmar, Htet was raised in a Chinese-Burmese family with roots in Yunnan, a province in southwestern China. She attended Chinese-language, Burmese and international schools.
At Georgetown, Htet pursued a master’s degree in Asian Studies in the School of Foreign Service, building on interests developed during her undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College. In her master’s program, she researched questions related to migration, identity and education in China and Southeast Asia, leveraging her fluency in Chinese, Korean, Burmese and English.
Htet will join the politics and international relations track at the Yenching Academy to examine how education and diaspora intersect to shape China’s relationship with Southeast Asia and how those forces affect individual decision-making in the region.
While Htet has a strong interdisciplinary training and background in China studies through Western academic institutions, she hopes to study China from within its own institutional and intellectual frameworks. She also looks forward to immersing herself in Chinese culture, she said.
In the long run, Htet hopes to play a part in helping improve mutual understanding between China and Myanmar through educational and cultural exchange.
“I aspire to help shape a regional future in which education creates opportunities and belonging across China and Southeast Asia,” she said.
Exploring Labor Organizing in China
Xiong arrived at Georgetown in 2021 wanting to change the world as a scientist.
She declared biochemistry and classics as her majors. But after taking history classes as part of the core curriculum in the College of Arts & Sciences, Xiong realized she much more enjoyed learning about history than science. Xiong eventually dropped biochemistry and declared history as her second major.
The core history courses, she said, changed her life.
“In the College of Arts & Sciences, I had all these different opportunities to explore and take different classes,” Xiong said. “Those classes convinced me that learning history was something interesting I wanted to keep doing.”
At the Yenching Academy, she plans to study history and archaeology while incorporating her interest in labor history and sports. Xiong also plans to research the social and cultural history of sports in China during the reign of Mao Zedong.
“History to me is the best way to understand things,” she said.
At Georgetown, her curiosity led her to various extracurricular activities. Xiong attended and organized trips for the Center for Social Justice’s Alternative Breaks Program. She was on the Georgetown Model United Nations team and was a part of the Social Responsibility Network, a program for College of Arts & Sciences students interested in pursuing service-based and social impact careers. Xiong also spent two years with The Hoya as a copy and photo editor and was an emergency medical technician for Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service (GERMS).
“Georgetown really encouraged me to explore,” Xiong said.
Yenching is an extension of that curiosity. She discovered the program when she visited China with her family after graduating in 2025. Xiong said she felt drawn to study in her parents’ homeland.
She currently works for the Charleston Alliance For Fair Employment in South Carolina as a full-time organizing apprentice and plans to return to labor organizing after her two years in China. Xiong’s experience at Georgetown has inspired her to continue diving into new opportunities, she said.
“I had a really great support system of professors and mentors who were able to keep me focused,” she said. “They told me to study what I love, study what I enjoy and the rest will figure itself out later.”
By Kelyn Soong and Siobhan Cooney
