The Berger Memorial Fellowship was created to honor the life and legacy of the late Honorable Sandy Berger, National Security Advisor to President Bill Clinton, who was committed to balancing competition with collaboration between the United States and China, even when obstacles seemed insurmountable. Two students from Peking University’s School of International Studies (SIS) are awarded the Berger Fellowship each year after a competitive process, to support research on a topic related to international relations.
USCET’s partnership with PKU also provides a platform for fellowship recipients to share their research with USCET’s international network. This year’s award ceremony featured remarks from PKU leadership and Ken Jarrett, Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group, as well as a panel discussion with students and faculty on related research topics. Following the presentation of the 2024 fellowship awards by USCET’s Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch, the newly recognized fellows presented their research for feedback from the USCET delegation. Following the ceremony, Berger Fellows from the previous five years joined the USCET delegation for a celebratory lunch.
2024 Berger Fellow Lyu Ziyan, a Ph.D. student at Peking University studying International Politics, hopes to pursue research related to U.S. foreign policy and its interactions with international organizations. She has earned multiple distinctions including the National Scholarship, Outstanding Student Awards, and the May Fourth Scholarship, while serving in leadership positions in the Student Union and gaining practical experience at PKU’s Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding and Tsinghua’s Center for International Security and Strategy. Guided by her mission of “Serving the Nation with Global Vision,” she is committed to fostering greater mutual understanding between China and the United States.
2024 Berger Fellow Siyu Liu, an undergraduate student at Peking University studying International Organizations and International Public Policy, hopes to pursue research related to public policy from a multi-level perspective. She has received numerous honors including the First-Class Scholarship for top academic ranking, Excellence in Learning Award, Award for Scientific Research, and Lingxiao Scholarship, and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar from China. Her experience includes internships across government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, international NGOs, and private enterprises. In 2023, she worked at the UN Headquarters in New York under China Scholarship Council sponsorship, contributing to the 78th UN General Assembly and the 2023 SDG Summit.
Read interviews with some of our previous Sandy Berger Memorial Fellows here.