Deadline:
February 04, 2025
Location(s)
United States of America
Overview
The Truman Scholarship is meant to celebrate and prepare the nation's next generation of public service leaders. Scholars receive up to $30,000 for graduate school as well as access to extensive Scholar programming, priority admission and financial support from public service graduate programs, advising and mentoring from other public service leaders, and preferred hiring with the federal government.
The Truman Scholarship is a very competitive national award. The Foundation reviews over 800 applications for our 55 to 65 Scholarships awarded annually. These applications do not include students competing on their campus for one of a school's four nominations.
Details
The Criteria
We are looking for the next generation of public service leaders. The ideal candidate will demonstrate:
- Leadership: We consider leadership to be more than merely occupying a position of leadership. Truman Scholars either use their leadership position in unique ways or create opportunities for leadership where none existed.
- Commitment to a Career in Public Service: Truman Scholars have a lengthy record of service as well as detailed and ambitious plans for a future career as a leader in their area of interest.
- Likelihood of Success in Graduate School: We are less interested in a perfect academic record than we are in seeing a Truman Scholar who is intellectually curious and on track to succeed in their graduate program of choice.
Although the award is competitive, we believe that the application process can be valuable regardless of the outcome. The process of applying includes exploring and refining your past experiences and future goals. You will be asked to consider various paths in service and encouraged to be ambitious. Along the way, you can expect to strengthen your writing, your relationships with mentors, and your knowledge of your chosen field. These skills do not vanish when your Truman journey ends. Applying for a competitive award, like Truman or many others, helps you to prepare more competitive graduate school applications and be more comfortable in stressful interview formats. You may also meet friends, mentors, and future collaborators along the way.
Approaching the application process as a tool for learning, rather than something to be won, not only ensures the process is more valuable, but makes you more likely to be successful. Candidates who approach the process with openness and authenticity often fare better than their counterparts who are more focused on the competitive aspects of the process.
To that end, we provide as much information about the process as possible. Everyone should have the information necessary to produce their best application.
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
Candidates must be:
- US Citizens, US National residents of American Samoa, or expecting their citizenship by the date of the award;
- Currently enrolled at a US-based accredited institution;
- In their penultimate year of school (for candidates graduating in four years or more) or in their final year of school (for candidates graduating in three years or fewer);
- Nominated by either their current institution of study or their former institution of study for transfer or community college applicants. Schools are limited to four nominees plus three additional transfer nominations; and,
- Planning to attend graduate school in pursuit of a career in public service. The Foundation encourages time between undergraduate and graduate school, so candidates need not commit to going immediately.
Candidates can be:
- pursuing any major likely to lead to a public service career;
- any age;
- interested in any graduate degree other than the MBA; and,
- considering either domestic or international programs for their graduate education.
Scholars are required to:
- Attend Truman Scholars Leadership Week as a condition of receiving the award. If you cannot attend, you should not apply for the award;
- File annual reports with the Foundation until funding is complete;
- File a graduate school proposal in advance of receiving Truman funding (this proposal does not need to be for the same program described in their application);
- File an employment report for three of seven years after graduation from a Foundation funded graduate program. If Scholars are unable to work in public service for this period, they may be subject to paying back their funding.
Dates
Deadline: February 04, 2025
Cost/funding for participants
The Foundation provides:
- Up to $30,000 toward a public service-related graduate degree. The Foundation has supported Truman Scholars in many fields of study, from agriculture, biology, engineering, technology, medicine, and environmental management, to fields such as economics, education, government, history, international relations, law, political science, public administration, nonprofit management, public health, and public policy.
- Truman Scholars Leadership Week. This event, held at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, introduces new Scholars to the services provided by the Foundation and the many pathways to public service.
- Summer Institute. Immediately after college graduation, Scholars have the opportunity to participate in an eight-week Summer Institute in Washington, DC.
- Truman-Albright and Other Fellows Program. After Summer Institute, Scholars may elect to stay in Washington, DC, for a full year in the Truman-Albright Fellows Program.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
