Johns Hopkins senior Trevor Wrobleski named Schwarzman Scholar

As a newly named Schwarzman Scholar, Johns Hopkins senior Trevor Wrobleski, a public health studies major, will travel to China next fall to pursue his master's in global affairs.

Image caption: Trevor Wrobleski

Wrobleski, who grew up in Georgetown, Kentucky, and will graduate from Hopkins in May, is one of 142 members of the Schwarzman Scholars Class of 2019. The program provides all expenses for a year at Beijing's Tsinghua University, where the combination of coursework and real-life experience will provide students with a first-hand, in-depth understanding of China.

Wrobleski, 21, transferred to Johns Hopkins as a junior after studying behavioral neuroscience and philosophy at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. At Hopkins, he is co-president of the AIDS Alliance and says he's focusing his public health studies on injury prevention and treatment, as well as exploring ways to "integrate lessons from infectious disease response with work addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases."

Previously, Wrobleski interned with Partnerships in Health on the non-communicable disease synergies team and worked with the West Africa AIDS Foundation in Accra, Ghana. Also in Accra, he recently directed emergency care training for the International Health Center.

With the Schwarzman Scholarship, the Hopkins senior says he sees an opportunity to learn from China's "growing influence and capacity to direct regional and international responses to disasters" and its "technological developments that will play a large role in the future of injury and disease reduction.

"It's essential that we build relationships with and understand China and its people for the sake of a more prosperous, safe, and peaceful future," Wrobleski says.

Students in the scholarship program live and study together on the campus of the newly built Schwarzman College, pursuing master's degrees in global affairs. Wrobleski plans to concentrate specifically on public policy.

Wrobleski joins the third cohort of Schwarzman Scholars, a program inspired by the Rhodes Scholarship. The 2019 class was selected from a group of more than 4,000 applicants. About 41 percent of the Schwarzman Scholars are from the United States, 20 percent are from China, and 39 percent from other countries.