Three Indian American students — Sahana Bhagat, Yash Rajpal and Shruthi Sriram — are among 16 young leaders set to embark on a transformative year of immersive living and professional experience across Asia as 2026-2027 Luce Scholars.
“The 2026-2027 Luce Scholars cohort represents the best of the next generation: individuals who are curious, driven, and approach the world with a deep sense of responsibility,” said Aida Gureghian, Program Director for Leadership, Henry Luce Foundation.
The Luce Scholars Program is an experiential fellowship that connects emerging American leaders with immersive professional placements in Asia, according to a media release.
Over 13 months, Scholars receive living stipends and language training in addition to their individually crafted work placements. The program’s mission is to cultivate more informed, compassionate, and interconnected relationships between the United States and the countries, cultures, and people of Asia.
Indian American 2026-2027 Luce Scholars are:
Sahana Bhagat, interested in International Development, is a researcher and practitioner who leverages entrepreneurship and financial markets to promote equitable and sustainable economic development.
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Specializing in impact investing, she advises investors – from development banks to asset managers – to maximize positive social and environmental outcomes.
At BlueMark, an impact investing consultancy, Bhagat’s projects have included assessing an income-sharing program that finances college tuition in Sub-Saharan Africa and evaluating a fund that delivers medical technologies for women’s health in underserved regions of Asia. She is now developing an impact rating certification for Japanese banks.
Bhagat graduated from the University of Virginia, earning degrees in Global Security & Justice and Media Studies, as well as a minor in Social Entrepreneurship.
For her undergraduate thesis, she investigated the forced sterilizations of detainees in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers between 2018 and 2020 and evaluated the political and social discourse surrounding these actions.
Raised in an Indian-American family, she is passionate about Hindi cinema and Bollywood dance, on which she grew up.
Yash Rajpal, interested in Technology and Innovation, is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in bioengineering and biophysics and minoring in chemistry and political science as part of the Vagelos Integrated Program for Energy Research (VIPER).
As an aspiring physician-engineer, he has blended his passions for innovation, medicine, and community education. On campus, Rajpal served as training lieutenant on Penn’s Medical Emergency Response Team, running weekly trainings for 70+ EMTs and responding to campus emergencies.
A co-recipient of the Shah Family Prize, Rajpal participates in outreach initiatives, including Act First and Access Engineering, to enrich students in medicine and engineering across Philadelphia, and he serves as a tutor/teaching assistant for organic chemistry and calculus courses.
Rajpal also works on developing his own engineering solutions in the Shu Yang Group, where he has developed a novel, superabsorptive concrete composition.
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Rajpal hopes to become a pediatric physician and develop low-cost devices to close clinical gaps in low-resource areas. He will graduate with both a BSE and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2026.
Shruthi Sriram, interested in law, including International Law & Human Rights, graduated magna cum laude from Boston College in 2024 with a BA in History and Economics.
She is currently a senior project analyst at Mintz Levin, where she supports case teams across litigation, immigration, government relations, and pro bono advocacy.
In this role, she leads the firm’s Political Asylum and Domestic Violence Clinics. Through trauma-informed client interviews, legal drafting, and policy research, she has become deeply attentive to how legal systems are experienced by individuals navigating migration and seeking safety.
Before Mintz, Sriram worked with the Innocence Project, contributing to efforts to exonerate wrongfully incarcerated individuals. She also supported research and advocacy at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, where she examined the civil liberties implications of emerging surveillance technologies.
Classically trained in Carnatic music, Sriram aims to carry that foundation in composition and rhythm into her love for contemporary music and production.