The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
October 29, 2020
The Truman Foundation, created as a living memorial to President Truman, is committed to attracting young, bright leaders to public service. In addition to offering $30,000 towards graduate education, the Foundation nurtures, supports, and sustains the ambitions of young leaders, building a sense of community among a cohort, but also enabling opportunities for mentorship among different cohorts. After their undergraduate education and before beginning a graduate program, scholars are placed for 3 to 24 months in Washington DC in positions with the federal government or with an NGO.
The Truman is an extremely competitive national scholarship open to students fitting the following profile:
Students must
- be a US citizen
- be an undergraduate student at junior-level standing, or senior-level standing but in their 3rd year of college enrollment
- be committed to bringing about change in a social, political, or environmental cause
- be committed to improving the ways in which government agencies, NGOs, or educational institutions serve the public
- be interested in getting a graduate or professional degree (a master’s, a doctorate, a law degree, Master of Public Administration, Master of Public Health, Master of Education, Master of Public Policy, or Master of International Affairs)
- have strong enough grades to gain admission to a graduate program
- have regularly read a national newspaper and thoughtful periodical
- have a substantial and sustained record of service as shown by participation in:
- student government and / or campus-based extra-curricular activities
- non-campus related community service activities
- government internships, advocacy or interest groups, non-partisan politics, military / ROTC
- partisan political activities and campaigns
- be capable of analyzing a public issue in their intended career area and presenting their findings in a one-page memo to a government official who could take action
Visit the website: How to Become a Truman Scholar and 2020-2021 Bulletin of Information.
NB: The application requires a personal statement & a policy proposal that must address an identified problem, the proposed solution, and the obstacles / implementation challenges foreseen; it must be presented in the form of a memo to the government official who the candidate feels might have the greatest impact in resolving the problem.
Each university may nominate up to four candidates, plus three eligible transfer students. There will be a first selection at the campus level and the selected finalist(s) will be nominated for the Truman scholarship.
Deadline for campus-level selection: December 11, 2020.
Deadline for online submissions for the 2020 competition: February 2, 2021.