Fiona Koh finished her degree overseas in Switzerland.
FIONA KOH / COURTESY
Mack Olmsted, Senior Writer
Manhattan University’s former Division I athlete, Fiona Koh ‘21, has been selected as a Schwarzman Scholar for the upcoming 2025-2026 academic year.
This prestigious program, established by Stephen A. Schwarzman, offers a one-year, fully-funded masters degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Koh is the first student from Manhattan University to be accepted into the program, and is only the third citizen from Switzerland to attend.
After she graduated from Manhattan University with Magna Cum Laude honors in business analytics, Koh attended Universität Liechtenstein for a Masters of Science degree and received an award for the Most Innovative Masters Thesis. Koh also frequently volunteers, providing mentoring and coaching services to young and motivated students looking to further their career path, all the while working for one of the four largest global professional service networks, Deloitte.
Koh spoke to The Quadrangle about her excitement in joining the Schwarzman program.
“I just really want to learn about China, China’s economy and China’s stance on cyber security,” Koh said. “I want to learn, in general, about China’s culture, travel around the country and build a really strong network in East Asia.”
In addition, Koh spoke about her inspiration to apply for the program.
“At my office, we have people from 70 countries, so we’re super international, but I just always thought back to, ‘oh, I want to do something more global.’ I want to do something with Asia. My husband is from South Korea, so there’s a bit of connection there as well.”
Koh is thankful for her time at Manhattan University, and believes it helped contribute to her achievements she has made since she graduated.
“I am 1,000 percent thankful for Manhattan [University],” Koh said. “First of all, moving abroad when you’re so young is really impacting you on a really big scale, I didn’t have parents or anything near Manhattan [University] that I could just go to on the weekends. So I had to grow up really fast in order to be independent really quickly. I feel like Manhattan really has a lot of people that are super driven and connected. Now looking back, I started to realize that, and started to appreciate how the institution has really great people, and I’m still in contact with a lot of these people. They all made it really far, and I think they were also the ones who drove me to go and achieve my dreams.”
FIONA KOH / COURTESY
Last year, Koh mentored current Manhattan University senior business analytics and computer information systems double major, Giana Homan. The pair grew close over the course of their mentoring relationship and still remain in contact. Homan spoke to The Quadrangle about her admiration for Koh.
“I think that she is particularly amazing,” Homan said. “She [Koh] had told me a little bit about the program before she began applying. And, of course I was rooting for her. Just seeing her credentials, and all the extra stuff she’s done besides just pursuing full time employment, is really inspiring and amazing. I think it’s really well deserved in this case.”
Koh’s former professor, Musa Jafar, Ph.D., wrote to The Quadrangle in an email stating his excitement for the scholar.
“I would like to congratulate Fiona for her achievements and specifically for getting the Schwarzman Scholars award,” Jafar stated in an email. “That is a “Gold Medal” in education. I had Fiona in two of my business analytics courses that I teach as part of the Business Analytics and Computer Information Systems Program at the O’Malley School of Business… Whether it is course work or athletics, she took her work seriously and she always strove for excellence.”
Koh told The Quadrangle advice she would give to students who would like to participate in similar programs as her.
“First of all, believe in yourself,” Koh said. “And then, second of all, really understand who you want to be and what your story should be, and you should be able to explain yourself in a minute or less why you are, who you are and where you want to go, because that’s what I spent a lot of time on, and I think it helped.”