We are thrilled to introduce you to the newest cohort of Lang Scholars (left to right above): Keanu Arpels-Josiah '28 (Photo credit: Michelle Gustafson), Annie Liu '28, Bijan Taheri '28, and (not pictured) Diane Arias Tejeda ‘28.
The Lang Opportunity Scholarship (LOS) Program each year selects members of Swarthmore’s sophomore class as Lang Scholars. Selection criteria include distinguished academic and co-curricular achievement, leadership qualities, and demonstrated commitment to civic and social responsibility. This program offers a diverse range of benefits, including a $12,000 grant, a designated adviser, and networking opportunities to support the development of a project that creates a needed social resource in the U.S. or abroad. The program was conceived and endowed by Eugene M. Lang ’38.
Apply
Sophomores in good standing are welcome to apply. There is a multistep application process.
Please ask three recommenders to complete this recommendation form by November 1.NOTE: One of these recommenders should be a faculty member (i.e. professor) from Swarthmore College or another previous institution.
A subset of applicants may be invited to interview(s).
Eligibility
To be eligible, sophomore applicants need to be in good standing in both academics and conduct.
Resources
To learn about current and past Lang Scholars and their projects, check out:
Note: The Lang Opportunity Scholarship is not in service of Swarthmore College and does not create an employment relationship between the student(s) and the College.
LOS Class of 2028
Keanu Arpels-Josiah | New York, NY
Since 2022, Keanu has helped lead the youth climate justice movement in New York City and throughout the so-called United States. This project advances that work by considering the cross-issued fight for a livable future and addressing the interconnected crises of fossil fuel extractivism, militarism, subsidization of genocide, and climate that are shaping the future of their generation in Keanu's home of New York City, in Pennsylvania, and across Turtle Island and the world. Keanu's project will explore how place-based local work can build cultures of solidarity and cross-issue campaigns, ultimately investigating new movement identities and translocal strategies for youth movement spaces.
“For me, it’s an honor to be invited to the upcoming cohort of the Lang Opportunity Scholar Program because, in an academic environment too often dominated by extractive information-gathering processes and too often funding the very fossil fuel and militaristic industries destroying our future, the Lang Opportunity Scholarship offers a critical venue for supporting the actual community-rooted engaged scholarship work that is vital to an ethical education and to what our role as students and learners writ large should be. I hope that through this project, not only am I able to explore the very questions that bring together youth movements for climate justice in local communities and how they relate to a broader global movement of continued fossil fuel expansion, militarism, climate crisis, and intersecting crises, but also, rotted in this analysis, I’m able to provide concrete support in building out these very movements.”
Annie Liu | Ellicott City, MD
In Southeastern Pennsylvania, immigrant communities face a civil legal system that too often operates under a “one-size-fits-all” model. This leaves domestic violence survivors vulnerable to cultural misunderstandings that impact whether their stories are believed in court. Annie's project, Cultural Liaisons for Legal Advocacy, pilots a cultural liaison advisory board that connects community liaisons, immigrant-serving organizations, and legal aid providers. Together, they aim to turn community insights into survivor-informed training and a replicable toolkit that strengthens attorney–client communication, improves courtroom advocacy, and builds sustainable infrastructure for culturally responsive legal practice, ultimately bridging cultures to build safer homes for immigrant survivors across Pennsylvania.
“Being a Lang Opportunity Scholar means having the space, guidance, and responsibility to see where people are falling through the cracks of our systems and to help build lasting, community-rooted infrastructure so those systems hold people up instead of letting them slip through. Through my project, I hope to strengthen survivor engagement and enhance courtroom advocacy in the short term, while laying the foundation to institutionalize cultural liaison roles within Pennsylvania’s courts and advance a justice system that not only grants immigrant survivors access, but ensures they are truly understood and protected.”
Diane Arias Tejeda ‘28 | Hazleton, PA
Diane's intended project aims to reinforce existing food security initiatives in the neighboring Chester area by addressing food preparation and nutrition education. By providing cooking classes that teach culturally relevant dishes using locally available distributed food items, this project aims to increase the nutrition and resource education of young teens in Chester.
“Being a Lang Opportunity Scholar allows me to address a social issue that I have personally experienced in the past. I’m grateful for this opportunity, because it puts me in a position with agency to influence the future outcomes of others from similar backgrounds. I hope that, through the program’s guidance and support, I am able to return a sense of agency to others in similar circumstances, and additionally help them build lifelong skills, improve their health, and create happy memories associated with food and the community that feeds and provides for them.”
Bijan Taheri | Agoura Hills, CA
Bijan's project focuses on building the essential infrastructure for Youth for Innocence, a nonprofit that empowers youth to help overturn wrongful convictions through non-lawyer advocacy. While some innocence clinics accept undergraduate volunteers, the potential of high school and undergraduate students to prepare wrongful conviction cases and take the first steps toward exoneration is often overlooked. By overhauling the current training and establishing partnerships with members of the innocence community, youth volunteers will be equipped with the knowledge and connections to make a direct impact in freeing the innocent around the world and in their own communities.
“For me, being a Lang Opportunity Scholar means I'll have an unparalleled opportunity to be a part of something much larger than myself, enabling others to join in the work I care so deeply about and changing the lives of others through collective action. Through my project, I hope to leave behind a framework that becomes an adaptable foundation for thousands of non-lawyer advocates to free hundreds of innocent individuals in the U.S. and around the globe.”
LOS Class of 2027
Meet the Lang Opportunity Scholarship (LOS) Class of 2027 (left to right): Chung Sze Kwok, Sarah Cymrot, Pedro Ennes, Amelia Crill.
Meet the Lang Opportunity Scholarship (LOS) Class of 2026 (clockwise from top left): Cheng-Yen Wu, Danika Grieser, Lena Habtu, Prerna Karmacharya, Myadaggarav Chuluundorj, and Hans Tuti Daniel Steven Mukum Tembele.
Dr. Magee provides leadership, implementation, and assessment of key programs of the Center that fund the work of social responsibility, including the Engaged Scholarship Research Grant program for faculty and for students: Lang Opportunity Scholarship Program, Lang Social Impact Fellowship, Pilot Project Grant Program, Project Pericles Fund of Swarthmore College, and Davis Projects for Peace. Office hours by appointment.
