Meet The 2022 Class Of Truman Scholars

The 2022 class of Truman Scholars has been announced by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. This year’s scholars include 58 college students representing 53 U.S. colleges and universities.

Considered the premier graduate scholarship for students who intend to enter governmental work or public service, the Truman Scholarship was created by an act of Congress in 1975 soon after President Harry S. Truman passed away. It was established as a living memorial to Truman, and for more than 40 years Truman Scholarships have reflected the legacy of the 33rd President by supporting and inspiring Americans from diverse backgrounds to enter public service.

About 60 Truman Scholars are selected each year from hundreds of college juniors who go through a multi-stage selection process, requiring an initial nomination by their undergraduate colleges, selection as a finalist by a Truman Finalist Selection Committee, and an interview with one of the Regional Review Panels that make the final choices. Candidates may major in any subject area likely to lead to a public service career, other than the MBA.

This year’s 58 winners were selected from 189 finalists from 126 colleges and universities who participated in virtual interviews earlier in the year. The finalists were drawn from more than 700 candidates who had been nominated by 275 colleges and universities.

“We have confidence that these 58 new Trumans will meet their generation's challenges together," said Dr. Terry Babcock-Lumish, the Foundation’s Executive Secretary and a 1996 Truman Scholar from Pennsylvania. “As we pay tribute to the Truman Foundation's president for over twenty years, Secretary Madeleine Albright, it is our responsibility to carry on her work as a tireless champion of democracy, human rights, and public service. Selected from across America, the 2022 Truman Scholars reflect our country as innovative, purposeful, patriotic problem-solvers, never shying away from a challenge.””

The 2022 class features:

• Two institutions – Dickinson College and Manhattan College - that have their first Truman Scholars.
• Six institutions – Columbia University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the United States Air Force Academy, and the University of Mississippi - that had more than one Truman Scholar.
• Twenty-five Scholars who attended public universities; 15 from private research universities; 15 who attended private liberal arts colleges, and three Scholars from U.S. service academies.

Among the criteria used in selecting the scholars are the following:

1. A record of campus and community service demonstrating a capacity for effective leadership;
2. Commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit and advocacy sectors;
3. A well-conceived vision via a written policy proposal for how to create change in the applicant’s main interest area; and
4. A strong academic record with likely acceptance to the graduate school of the candidate's choice.

As one condition of receiving Truman funds, scholars are required to work in public service for three of the seven years following completion of a Foundation-funded graduate degree program. They are also required to file annual reports with the Foundation in order to access and maintain their scholarship funding.

The stipend is up to $30,000 toward a public service graduate degree, although some institutions make arrangements to match the award with supplemental funding of their own. In addition, scholars receive leadership training, career counseling, and special internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government. The Scholars also take part in the Truman Scholars Leadership Week, held at William Jewell College.

You can read the full list and biographies of the new Truman Scholars here. As in the past, many of the Scholars are students of color, first-generation college students, and recent immigrants to the United States.

The cohort includes political activists, AmeriCorps volunteers, NCAA Division 1 athletes, federal interns, musicians, founders of non-profit organizations, and published researchers snd authors. And true to the intent of the Truman program, the Scholars’ fields of study span a broad array of interests, illustrated by these few examples:

• Cameron Adkins majors in political science with a concentration in American politics at Columbia University. His special interests include addressing generational poverty in Appalachia.
• Mariah Choiniere is a first-generation student at the University of Vermont, majoring in forestry. Prior to enrolling at Vermont, she served over 1,600 hours with AmeriCorps, and in 2020, she joined the United States Forest Service as a wildland firefighter.
• James Harvey Elliott II is majoring in African American and African diaspora studies at Columbia University. Incarcerated at age 19, James has become an advocate for prison education. He plans to earn a JD.
• Tal Feldman is double majoring in economics and mathematics at Wake Forest University. He’s interested in applying data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to policy work. As an intern last year, he built AI models for the US Department of State, and he’s worked at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, creating AI for monitoring and ensuring international financial stability.
• Christine J. Groves is majoring in mechanical engineering, concentrating on renewable energy technologies, at the United States Coast Guard Academy. The founder of the US Coast Guard Academy’s Transgender Committee, she plans to pursue an MPP/MSc in sustainable energy engineering, with a focus on direct air carbon capture technologies.
• Liana S Keesing is pursuing a joint BS/MS in electrical engineering with a minor in physics at Stanford University. An honors candidate with Stanford's Center for Ethics in Society, she is the co-founder and chief technology officer of a startup developing low-cost, machine-learning-enabled sensor systems for agriculture and defense applications.
• Abrianna E. Morales studies psychology and criminology with a minor in math, at the University of New Mexico. A sexual assault victim herself at the age of 15, she later founded Sexual Assault Youth Support Network, which offers support, empowerment, and connection to young sexual assault survivors. Also a McNair Scholar, Abrianna intends to pursue a joint JD/PhD in law, psychology, and criminology.
• Dawry Ruiz is studying community and nonprofit leadership with a certificate in arts and teaching at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A scholar in the First Wave Hip-Hop & Urban Arts scholarship program. Dawry wants to pursue an MA in arts administration or an EdM in education leadership, organizations, and entrepreneurship.
• Rachel Stewart is a Haslam Scholar who studies environmental justice and radioactive waste management at the University of Tennessee. She has lived in Tajikistan and now studies in Kyrgyzstan, where she will complete a thesis on the gendered impacts of uranium mining.

The 2022 cohort joins an alumni group of 3,442 Truman Scholars named since the first awards were made in 1977. Included in that group are such luminaries as United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch (1987), Senator Chris Coons (1983), Representative Ted Deutch (1986), Representative Dusty Johnson (1998), Representative Andy Kim (2003), Representative Tom Malinowski (1985), Representative Greg Stanton (1990), White House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice (1984), National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (1997), former Arizona Governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (1977), former Secretary of Education John King (1995), and Fair Fight founder Stacey Abrams (1994).