Penn alum named 2024 Yenching Scholar

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Chonnipha (Jing Jing) Piriyalertsak, a 2023 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as a 2024 Yenching Scholar with full funding to pursue an interdisciplinary master’s degree in China studies at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing.

Piriyalertsak is among the 106 scholars chosen from 39 countries and regions to enroll in the program in September. She is the seventh scholar affiliated with Penn to be awarded the scholarship since the program’s inception in 2015.

Piriyalertsak, who is from Bangkok, earned her bachelor’s degree in international relations with minors in classical studies, comparative literature, and history. She has worked at an intellectual property law firm in Bangkok, an artificial intelligence startup in Singapore, and a trade advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. At Yenching Academy, she will pursue a master of law in China studies (politics and international relations) with plans to research the intellectual history behind China’s foreign investment decision making and crisis management processes.

At Penn, Piriyalertsak was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar, and she received a 2022 Franklin Opportunity Fund award for working to bridge the gap between global policy and narrative writing. She was a Perry World House Student Fellow, conducting research on international technology regulations. She was a two-time recipient of the Perry World House Summer Grant and a 2021 winner of the Perry World House Undergraduate Essay Prize, for her essay on China’s hydropower activities in the Mekong River. She also was the co-editor-in-chief of the Pennsylvania Punch Bowl, Penn’s oldest satire magazine; the founder of @ir_unchained, a humor page about international relations; and a member of the Gryphon Senior Society.

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