AKS Fellows
Saha Vishwanath is a first-year graduate student in the Masters of Asian Studies Program at the
Elliott School of International Affairs. As a recipient of the GWIKS Academy of Korean Studies
Fellowship, she is excited to broaden her interest in the Korean peninsula beyond culture and
language and learn more about Korea in terms of policy and security. Currently she works as a
Software Engineer and continues to develop her STEM career while utilizing her background in
Computer Science.
Ms. Vishwanath graduated from the College of William and Mary with a double major in
Computer Science and Global Studies with a concentration in East Asia. Her passion for Korean
culture and language began when she decided to teach herself the language in high school. She
was awarded the National Security Language Initiative for Youth Scholarship to study abroad in
Korea in 2016. This further sparked her language-related interests leading to a semester
exchange program at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea as a second year college student.
Following her study abroad semester, she was awarded a Freeman Fellowship to intern abroad
in Busan, South Korea, at the Busan International Comedy Festival. She was also awarded two
Critical Language Scholarships in 2020 and 2021 to further her Korean language studies. She
currently speaks Korean at an advanced level and has lower-intermediate proficiency in Chinese
and Japanese.
Nazia Kazi is a MA student in the Asian Studies program at George Washington University with a
focus on Korea, China, and South Asia and a specialization in Global Communication and Public
Diplomacy. She is a graduate from the University of Georgia School of Public and International
Affairs with majors in Political Science and International Affairs. During her schooling, she
minored in Korean language studies and conducted research on the media’s effect on public
perception and political mobilization with a focus on the CCP, the BJP, and 2016 South Korea
Candlelight protests. Her pursuits in researching censorship and the role of media in
international politics led her to intern at the Human Rights Measurement Initiative and the
Georgia General Assembly House Media Services. She eventually went on to work as a GA
Senate Broadcast aide. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
KDIS Fellows
Annie E Heitmeier received her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a double minor in Korean
Language and Asian Studies. During her undergraduate education, she studied abroad in South
Korea for a semester and also worked 5 days a week at the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean
Human Rights (NKHR). During her time at NKHR, she had the privilege of working alongside North
Korean defectors, recording and translating their story, researching enforced disappearances
crimes, and then presented her work to US and South Korean diplomats at the first
International Youth Forum for Enforced Disappearance. Upon returning to the US, she remained
focused on North Korean affairs and started working remotely as a research intern at The
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, where she research and disseminate key policy and
news updates to 500 subscribers weekly. Keen on maintaining my connections in Seoul, she was
recently appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Korean Peninsula Youth Future Forum. In this
role, she bridge her experience from both the U.S. and Seoul to foster cross-cultural dialogue
between nonprofits, think tanks, and create opportunities for passionate Korean and American
students to engage in discussions on unification and human rights in Korea. This role has
enhanced her understanding of how think tanks influence North Korean human rights policy
and has sparked her curiosity about the U.S.’s broader role in security.
Grace Smith is a first-year Asian Studies M.A. student focusing in Korea. She graduated from the University
of Florida with a B.A. in International Studies focusing in Asia and a TESL Certificate. At UF, She ran
and established the Korean Language Table as an official student organization bringing together
Korean and American students for language and culture exchange. She has participated in the
16th and 17th Korea-America Student Conferences (KASC) as a delegate and then on the
Executive Committee as American Chair. She hopes to use what she learn at GWU to help her in her
future goals of working in policy and diplomacy. At GW, She looks to learn more about Korea and
Asia in general that will help me in my future career. She also looks forward to continuing her
research on rapid urbanization in Korean society and attending as many GWIKS events as
possible to learn all she can while she is here.
