Minerva Alum Jiayuan Tian Joins St. Gallen's Top 100 “Leaders of Tomorrow”

For readers unfamiliar with the St. Gallen Symposium, could you briefly share what the gathering is, what it meant to be selected as one of the Top 100 “Leaders of Tomorrow,” and how your experiences since graduating from Minerva, including your current work and studies at Columbia SIPA, shaped the way you approached the Symposium?

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The St. Gallen Symposium is an annual global conference held at the University of St. Gallen that brings together senior leaders, policymakers, scholars, and young changemakers to discuss pressing global challenges across generations and sectors. This year marked the 55th edition of the Symposium, continuing its long-standing tradition of fostering intergenerational dialogue and global exchange.

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I was selected as one of the Top 100 “Leaders of Tomorrow” through the Global Essay Competition, which attracted thousands of applicants worldwide, an experience that was both deeply meaningful and intellectually rewarding. For the competition, I wrote about the Darién Gap, examining migration through the intersections of media narratives, politics, ethics, and border governance, which reflected my broader interest in how global crises are understood differently across disciplines and societies. 

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My experiences at Minerva University and now at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs strongly shaped this perspective, especially through Minerva’s immersive rotation-city model and Columbia’s interdisciplinary approach to policy and international affairs. Together, these experiences encouraged me to approach the Symposium not only as a space for dialogue, but also as an opportunity to connect policy, media, culture, and human experience in conversations about the future.

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Was there a particular conversation, moment, or interaction during the Symposium that stayed with you long after it ended? What made it memorable?

One of the most memorable parts of the St. Gallen Symposium was actually the many conversations I had with other Top 100 “Leaders of Tomorrow” selected through the Global Essay Competition. This year’s theme, “Shifting Global Power,” and the broader idea of living in a disrupted age led to incredibly wide-ranging discussions, and I was deeply impressed by how many young people were trying to bridge different disciplines to address complex global challenges. 

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I spoke with participants researching topics such as FemTech and gender equity, labor conditions and delivery platform workers in Singapore, intellectual property and innovation governance, and the social impacts of emerging technologies. What stayed with me was not only the diversity of these issues, but also the shared belief among many young participants that no single field alone, whether policy, business, technology, or media, can fully solve today’s global problems. Those conversations reminded me that some of the most meaningful ideas emerge when people from very different academic, cultural, and professional backgrounds genuinely listen to one another and try to build connections across perspectives.

Looking back, were there specific classes, projects, city experiences, or conversations from Minerva that unexpectedly resurfaced for you during the Symposium?

Looking back, I found myself repeatedly reflecting on how my experience at Minerva University shaped how I engaged in conversations at the St. Gallen Symposium. One of my double majors, Politics, Government, and Society, provided me with the theoretical foundation and analytical tools to think critically about power, governance, institutions, and global inequality, themes that surfaced repeatedly throughout the Symposium. 

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At the same time, my other major in Arts and Humanities unexpectedly became just as important, because it was through that interdisciplinary, human-centered approach that I first became deeply interested in the Darién Gap for my Global Essay Competition paper. Studying migration not only as a policy issue, but also through media, storytelling, ethics, and representation, fundamentally changed how I understood global crises and human experiences. During the Symposium, I kept feeling grateful for the kind of education Minerva encouraged, one that allowed me to move across disciplines and perspectives, because it was ultimately that approach that led me to write the essay through which I was selected as one of the Top 100 “Leaders of Tomorrow.”

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St. Gallen brought together participants from across industries, countries, and generations. How did Minerva’s global rotation model shape the way you approached those conversations and relationships?

The global rotation model at Minerva University profoundly influenced how I approached conversations and relationships at the St. Gallen Symposium. Because participants came from so many different countries, academic backgrounds, and industries, I often found myself drawing naturally on experiences from the cities where I had lived and studied through Minerva’s global rotation, including San Francisco, Seoul, Berlin, Buenos Aires, and London. When someone mentioned they were from one of those places, or had studied or worked there, it immediately created a sense of familiarity and connection, making conversations feel much more personal and genuine. 

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Rather than discussing global issues only in abstract terms, I was able to relate through lived experiences, local observations, and cross-cultural perspectives developed during those years of constant movement and adaptation. In many ways, my identity as a Minerva alumnus made it feel natural to engage with people across differences, because Minerva had already taught me how to navigate diverse environments and conversations with openness, curiosity, and empathy.

You’ve spoken thoughtfully about youth anxiety, belonging, and the emotional dimensions of inequality. As someone working in youth storytelling and education access, what do you think young people most want leaders and institutions to better understand right now?

I think many young people today want leaders and institutions to better understand that anxiety is not simply an individual feeling; it is often connected to larger structural uncertainties surrounding education, work, identity, belonging, and the future itself. Across different countries and communities, I’ve seen how many young people feel pressured to constantly compete and optimize themselves, while also struggling with loneliness, economic insecurity, and a sense that institutions are becoming increasingly distant from their lived realities. What is often missing from public conversations is not only material support, but also genuine listening, the feeling that young people’s experiences, emotions, and perspectives are being taken seriously rather than treated as secondary to economic or political priorities. 

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Through my experiences in education and youth storytelling, I’ve also realized that inequality is deeply emotional as well as structural, because unequal access to opportunities can gradually shape how people imagine their own futures and self-worth. I hope leaders and institutions can move beyond seeing young people only as future workers or policy beneficiaries, and instead recognize them as thoughtful participants who are already navigating and responding to a rapidly changing world.

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After leaving the Symposium, what questions, ideas, or sense of responsibility are you still carrying with you?

After leaving the St. Gallen Symposium, one question that stayed with me was how institutions, governments, universities, and global organizations can rebuild trust in a time when so many people, especially young people, feel disconnected from political systems, economic structures, and even from one another. Many conversations at the Symposium made me reflect on how global challenges such as migration, technological disruption, inequality, and geopolitical fragmentation are increasingly interconnected, while our responses to them often remain fragmented across disciplines and sectors. 

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I also left with a stronger sense of responsibility to continue creating spaces for dialogue across different perspectives, generations, and cultural backgrounds, especially at a moment when polarization and uncertainty are shaping public life around the world. At the same time, meeting so many thoughtful and globally engaged young people gave me a sense of cautious optimism, because despite the anxieties we discussed, there was also a shared willingness to listen, collaborate, and imagine alternatives. More than anything, the Symposium reminded me that leadership today may be less about having immediate answers and more about remaining willing to engage seriously with complexity, ambiguity, and human experience.

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