De La Bruyère awarded Weill scholarship

Emily de La Bruyère ’16 was awarded the 2016 Michel David-Weill Scholarship. The scholarship is used for a master’s degree in international security at Sciences Po, in Paris, according to theSciences Po website.

The annual David-Weill Scholarship is given to one American student at one of the 30 top U.S. universities based upon criteria of literacy and scholastic achievements, capacity for critical analysis, demonstrated history of leadership, and proven commitment to the community.

De La Bruyère, a concentrator in the Wilson School pursuing a certificate in Chinese language and culture, is captain of the University varsity cross-country team, runs track, works at the Writing Center and is a peer academic adviser.

De LaBruyère explained that after her time at Sciences Po, she plans to join the military, possibly as a marine.

“[Sciences Po] is going to be a phenomenal program, I’m really excited for this, you get two years in France at a great school,” she noted.

“I’ve always been very interested in foreign countries,” she said, explaining that, growing up, she already had a love for travel and a curiosity about different countries. When she came to the University, there were formal and direct academic frameworks through which she could study international relations from a problem-solving standpoint. She noted that at the University you can address, in time, these problems in ways that are deeply rational and logical but also very personal.

Between her junior and senior year, de La Bruyère said took a year off to do independent research in China and Taiwan. She also worked in the U.S. Naval War College.

De La Bruyère added that her time in China and Taiwan was spent experiencing both cultures through regular, in-person interviews with a journalist and doing research on historic sites to further understand their way of life. At the Naval War College, she was researching Chinese maritime surveillance capabilities and spent time reading Chinese military newspapers to discover the variety of ships the country was using.

“So you got both sides of this coin, which are the two kinds of thinking that I like best,” she said, referring to the one-on-one interactions with citizens in addition to detailed research on their government and military.

Martin Flaherty ’81, a visiting professor of Public and International Affairs at the Wilson School, first worked with de La Bruyère through policy task forces her junior and senior year.

Both task forces addressed ways in which the U.S. government, the State Department in particular, can promote the rule of law in China, he added.

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“With her knowledge of Chinese, she was vital to both year’s projects,” he said.

“The first year she did a very interesting comparative study of how Taiwan democratized and how that can provide lessons for China, which was very innovative,” he added, recounting that the presentation of her idea impressed leading China scholars in New York.

Flaherty noted that de La Bruyère’s academic accomplishments excel alongside of her extracurricular involvements, where she has achieved national success in both cross-country and track.

“[She is] an academic multi-threat and multi-faceted more generally, so academically she is already, I would say, well-along to becoming an expert in international relations, foreign policy and China. On top of that, she’s worked at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, and so has the working knowledge of diplomacy as well,” he said.

De La Bruyère noted that, while she is excited for the scholarship program, she knows that it is not an end-goal in her pursuit of further studies and work in international relations.

Nur Manisali, who works at the Science Po Center for the Americas, did not respond to a request for comment.