Staying true despite success

Overcoming adversity, Tsering Chugye eventually excelled in high school, and in 2013 she was admitted to Peking University in Beijing to study archeology.

It's here that her passion for her culture grew even more. As she delved into her study of the past, she began to understand the profound importance of her own cultural history.

She started organizing cross-cultural communication events in her spare time, inviting students from diverse cultural backgrounds to share stories of their heritage.

She became increasingly drawn to the question of how cultures could be preserved and modernized in such a way that they could endure on a global scale.

In 2017, she went to New York University in the United States to do a master's in impact investment. Her study really shone a light on the combination of economic development with social and cultural sustainability. It was a perfect fit.

"The challenge of balancing personal happiness with social impact is what drew me in," Tsering Chugye said, noting that she began to understand how to leverage financial resources to support and sustain cultural heritage.

While at NYU, she founded the Responsible Investing Advocates League, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to exploring future trends in sustainable development, including cultural innovation through investment. She learned that empowering individuals was the key to preserving cultural heritage.

She later returned to China, and in 2023 she joined Tsinghua University's Schwarzman Scholars program, a prestigious one-year master's degree program in global affairs and leadership. There, she conducted research into cultural innovation and organized cross-cultural exchange programs, including a Tibetan dance workshop that introduced her heritage to students from more than 30 countries. She also began mentoring young professionals, helping them navigate their careers.