Nikhita Salgame
Nikhita Salgame ’21, from Princeton, New Jersey, graduated summa cum laude from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and received certificates in East Asian Studies and the History and Practice of Diplomacy. Salgame received the Gaither Award and the Lieutenant John A Larkin Memorial Prize for her thesis. Salgame is interested in human rights and U.S.-China relations and interned at the Brookings Institution in D.C. in summer 2019, where she conducted research on maritime security, U.S.-China trade, and Chinese influence operations. She attended the Princeton in Beijing language program in summer 2018 and participated in the Bridge Year Program in Kunming, China prior to arriving at Princeton, during which she worked at a nongovernmental organization focused on pesticide risk reduction. Salgame was co-president of the Princeton U.S.-China Coalition and directed the 2018 Global Governance Forum, bringing together students from the U.S. and China to hear from journalists, scholars, and human rights experts. She was previously secretary of Princeton's International Relations Council, on the secretariat of Princeton's Model United Nations Conference, and a member of the Model U.N. team. She volunteered as an ESL teacher at El Centro in Trenton and was a member of the SPIA Student Advisory Committee. Salgame is the 2020 James D. Zirin ’61 and Marlene Hess Scholar. Her internship was at the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) working as a member of the 2X Women’s Initiative team which supports women in developing countries.