Truman Scholarship

The Award

The Truman Scholarship is a competitive award for current juniors that offers generous funding for graduate study. Truman focuses on students with ambitions in public service, broadly defined, which includes, as the Truman Foundation notes, scholars from “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 evaluates candidates on the basis of their academic achievement, leadership, and public service and launches its winners to great heights in public service leadership. As the Foundation website describes, "Trumans are working in the West Wing, sitting on the US Supreme Court, and serving in federal and state legislatures. They are transforming nonprofits, delivering crucial services and organizing for change in local communities. And Truman Scholars are leaders in academia, research, and health care. They can be found in every branch of the Armed Services. And many make a difference beyond the borders of the United States."

Do these types of careers sound interesting to you? Have you begun to distinguish yourself through your academics, leadership, and service? If so, the Office of Engaged Learning would like to help you apply!

The Process

Students are eligible to apply for the Truman Scholarship as full-time students with either junior-level academic standing or senior-level standing in the third year of college enrollment.  Each year, Baylor is allowed to endorse four candidates for the national competition (five if one is a transfer student).  While the application for this award nationally is due in early February each year, the competition for campus endorsement occurs in November.  Each year, Baylor assembles a distinguished panel of people who have made a significant mark in intellectual and public service endeavors, commissioning this panel to select our candidates for endorsement for the national competition. These four endorsed candidates then work with Dr. Daniel Benyousky on completing application materials from November-February.

Baylor students who are interested in applying should contact Dr. Benyousky. If Truman sounds interesting to you, we encourage you to reach out early, even as soon as your freshman year, so we can begin to help you build the portfolio of leadership and public service experience that will make you competitive as a junior.