Schwarzman Scholar Aims to ‘Democratize Access to Knowledge’ Through Education Nonprofit

On a hot summer day in 2022, Natalie Delille (MPM’26) set out on foot along a steep, 40-minute mountain path in Jérémie, Haiti. It was the same route her parents once walked as children to attend school. By the time she reached the end, she was dizzy and short of breath. The experience stayed with her, revealing the distance her parents had traveled and the challenges they braved just to receive an education.

Delille’s parents left Haiti and settled in New York City in search of a better future. There, they worked long hours to support Delille and her siblings. Despite limited resources, education was nonnegotiable. Schoolwork came first, as her parents highlighted education as a path toward opportunity. For Delille, that belief became foundational. 

That conviction now grounds Delille’s work as a Schwarzman Scholar and founder of DearSociety, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding educational opportunity in Haiti. Through scholarships, fellowships and access to information and resources, DearSociety works to remove barriers that prevent youth from accessing higher education in the island nation. To date, the organization has supported 150 scholarships for underserved youth.

Delille’s academic journey reflects an effort to understand development from multiple angles. She earned a B.A. in business administration from Howard University, where she developed a foundation in strategy and organizational leadership. She later completed an M.A. in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge, examining how emerging technologies can serve as tools for equity when deployed responsibly. 

As a National Urban Fellow at the McCourt School, she is strengthening her ability to navigate governance, systems change and implementation at scale, skills that are essential to her work at the intersection of education, technology and development.

Delille also spent six years at Visa, where she led financial inclusion and inclusive workplace initiatives that reached more than 25,000 employees globally. The experience sharpened her understanding of how large institutions can influence access, opportunity and outcomes.

Deepening global impact as a Schwarzman Scholar

As a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Delille will gain a global perspective on development, tying together her experiences across business, technology, development and policy.

She hopes to study one of the most significant development transformations of the modern era: How China moved from the country’s “Century of Humiliation” to lifting more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty. Of special interest to her is the country’s emphasis on education, technology transfer and precision poverty alleviation.

“Schwarzman’s emphasis on China and global affairs offers a lens I have not yet had the opportunity to develop,” Delille says.

At Tsinguha, she plans to engage with scholars researching rural education and poverty alleviation, policymakers shaping education systems and entrepreneurs building education technology solutions. Delille hopes to draw lessons on how government, academic and private-sector actors can work together to build scalable, community-driven education models.

For Delille, the experiences she hopes to draw are deeply personal. Her mother was the only one of eight siblings able to leave Haiti, while most of her family remains there today. 

“As someone who has advanced because others opened doors for me, my vision is to use education as a tool for inclusive development,” she says. “My vision is to expand pathways for youth by creating higher education opportunities and developing digital platforms that democratize access to knowledge.”