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Q&A: JD Student Ananya Agustin Malhotra Looks Back At The Fellowship

August 3, 2026

Born and raised in Georgia, 2024 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow Ananya Agustin Malhotra is the daughter of immigrants from the Philippines and India. Growing up in a bi-cultural and interfaith household, Ananya was deeply motivated by her mother and father’s family histories to advocate for a more just and peaceful future United States foreign policy.

Ananya became captivated by global history, international law, and peace and security issues because of their power to shape a more just world. While studying public and international affairs at Princeton, she pursued her passion for survivor-centered advocacy as president of the SHARE Peer Program and explored the human legacies of the US nuclear age through an undergraduate thesis based on oral histories with New Mexican Downwinders. After earning an MPhil in modern European history with distinction as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, Ananya spent four years advocating for nuclear disarmament and risk reduction through her research, scholarship, and public commentary, working with the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Ananya is pursuing a JD at Yale University.

How has your thinking about your work evolved over the past two years? What are you asking now that you weren’t asking when you started?

While I have always been interested in foreign affairs and international law, I have become more interested in the history of immigration to the US and in immigration law over the past two years. My involvement in the Fellowship and my time in law school have both helped shore up my interest in immigration-related legal work.

How do you describe the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans to someone who hasn’t heard of it?

The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship is truly the “fellowship with a heart”! I have been amazed by the kindness, humility, and generosity of PD Soros Fellows across the years. So many Fellows I have met, as well as others involved in the Fellowship including the PD Soros staff and team and members of the Soros family, model not only a passion for their respective fields but also care, compassion, and dedication to their loved ones and their community.

What did the Fellowship give you that you didn’t expect?

The Fellowship gave me a community of friends across disciplines and generations. I have heard many of us say the Fellowship, and the community it has fostered, have helped instill in us the confidence to bring our full selves to our work whenever we can. It also certainly solidified my love for New York City: making memories exploring NYC’s rich cultural history during the Fall Conference have been among my favorite memories from the Fellowship.

What’s a friendship or connection from the Fellowship that has meant something to you?

I especially appreciate my cross-disciplinary friendships in the Fellowship. I learn so much from Fellows in the sciences, social sciences, music, and arts. I love supporting friends from the Fellowship in other disciplines and attending their presentations and performances when I can, and enjoy learning more informally about their different fields and their day-to-day work.

What’s next for you?

I am working towards finishing up law school and practicing, hopefully in international and national security-related law.

What would you want a newly selected PD Soros Fellow to know going into the Fellowship?

I would advise a newly selected fellow to prepare for lifelong friendships and to embrace the new paths that the Fellowship and the people you meet in the PD Soros community may lead you on!

What advice would you give to an applicant who is on the fence about applying?

I remember reading PD Soros Fellows’ profiles and thinking I had no shot! But you never know what might happen. Don’t self-disqualify, use the application as an opportunity to reflect on the many people and communities that helped raise you, and give it your best shot!