Congratulations 2025 STIA Grads!

Last week, the STIA program gathered to celebrate the achievements of our graduating students alongside their families, friends, faculty, and staff. Hosted by STIA Director and Professor Joanna Lewis, the graduation reception was a time to reflect on everything our students have accomplished and everything they’re poised to do next.

At the core of STIA is a commitment to integrating natural and social sciences, combining academic rigor with real-world impact. STIA students explore the interplay between science, technology, and international affairs through lenses as diverse as climate change, public health, energy, national security, business, and emerging technologies.

This year, STIA proudly celebrated one of our largest graduating cohorts yet. These students have pursued a wide range of studies and experiences during their time at Georgetown.

Class of 2025

77 STIA majors graduated this year (one of our largest classes yet!), with concentrations in Biotechnology & Global Health; Business, Growth & Development; Energy and Environment; and Science, Technology and Security.
Many of them also completed minors (some more than 1) in Arabic, Biology, Chinese, Computer Science, Creative Writing, Economics, Environmental Studies, French & Francophone Studies, Global Development Studies, History, Women’s and Gender Studies, Journalism, International Development, Japanese, Jewish Civilization, Korean, Mathematics, Philosophy, Religion/Ethics/World Affairs, Russian, Spanish, and certificates in International Business Diplomacy and Global Diplomatic Studies.

There were 12 STIA minors, including students from the college who majored in Anthropology, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Biology of Global Health, Environmental Biology (3 students), Computer Science (2 students), Journalism, and Economics (2 students).

STIA now co-administers two master’s programs, the MSFS-STIA concentration which has 25 students graduating this year in our fourth cohort of the program, and the new Environment and International Affairs Program, with 27 students graduating in the first cohort of the program.

13 students earned honors in the STIA major, each completed an impressive honors thesis, most involving over a year of dedicated research.

This year’s recipient of the Charles Weiss Medal, awarded for the highest excellence and achievement in the field of science, technology and international affairs, Catherine Meyer. It was a very tough competition this year, as we had several deserving students. Cate completed an impressive honors thesis, Framing the Synthetic Opioid Crisis in the United States, mentored by STIA professor Rebecca Katz. In her thesis, Cate was able to weave together a multidisciplinary approach to problems that truly exemplify STIA. She has used her minors in both computer science and journalism to enhance her work in innovative ways and bring new dimensions to the field. She was also the president of Hoya Helpers which tutors 6th graders in math, science and English, managing editor at the Hoya, and worked on capitol hill. We look forward to seeing how she builds upon her work at the intersection of technology, policy and communications after graduation.

Of course, many STIA students have won other prestigious awards, and are heading off to do amazing things after graduation. Here are a few examples of where are seniors are going next year:

Undergraduate Students:

• Zoe Borden – Senior Trust & Safety Analyst at Google (Responsible AI team)
• John Matuszewski – plan to work as a NASA Ecological Communication Intern; then will be moving to Japan to teach English through JET
• Kayla Dunn – MSc in Digital Sociology at University of Edinburgh
• Owen Chbani – NASA Pathways Program (Office of International and Interagency Relations); Master’s at GW’s Space Policy Institute
• Luke Monnich – Job at APCO Worldwide
• Gitanjali Reddy – Starting medical school
• Lara Behar – Job at AlphaSights
• Sydney Raymond – eCrime Intelligence Analyst at CrowdStrike
• Paige Maylath – Starting a PhD in Politics at Princeton University
• Zoe Zhao – Working in banking at JP Morgan
• Clarissa Guglielmelli – Cyber Risk Analyst at Good Harbor Security Risk Management
• Camila Navarro-Delavega – Deployment Strategist at Palantir (U.S. Government Division)
• Sophia Chang – Internship at Aerospace Corporation + continuing in Security Studies Program
• Ella Davie – Job offers from a tech consulting firm and an intelligence agency

Master’s Students:

• Zach Slotkin – Fellowship at the National Nuclear Security Administration, Washington, DC
• Paula Zhang – Studying Russian in Latvia (CLS) and Serbian in Belgrade (Boren Fellowship)
• Saurabh Bhoyar – EDF Climate Corps (Amazon) + American Councils for International Education
• Predrag Šutanovac – Associate Development Manager at Bechtel CleanGen Inc.
• Clarissa Guglielmelli – Cyber Risk Analyst at Good Harbor Security Risk Management

Congratulations to all of our 2025 graduates!
To all our STIA graduates: we are so proud of you. Thank you for being part of our community. We can’t wait to see how you’ll change the world.