Former MSA President Fiona Rose was recently named one of this year's 77 Truman Scholars who hail from around the country.
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The Truman Scholarship is a $30,000 grant that can be used to pay for graduate school. It is awarded to exceptional students that have demonstrated exemplary leadership potential, have excelled academically and have expressed a desire to be a "change agent" for the future.
A "change agent" - a Truman Foundation term - describes a student who in the future plans to work for the good of the public in either government or public service organizations.
Rose, an LSA senior, said she plans to come back to the state of Michigan after attending graduate school to work with Michigan's public education system.
"I'm interested in education," Rose said, adding that she wants to help the children of Michigan become "good citizens."
Rose is the only University student to win the scholarship this year, and is one of only three winners in the state.
The award itself is prestigious, and the process of being confirmed as a Truman Scholar is intense. Before becoming an official contender for the award, every hopeful must first be nominated by their university. Director Ruth Scodel of the LSA Honors Program was in charge of selecting this year's University nominee.
Scodel said that she nominates people purely on a basis of their ability to win.
"My attitude is that I'm completely cynical about the whole thing," Scodel said. "I sure don't like letting Harvard or Yale win honors more often than I have to."
Scodel said Rose was qualified for the honor due to her record of academic excellence and extracurricular activity. Scodel also said that Rose's personal background would help her stand out from other nominees.
After being selected, the University's nominee must write a policy analysis, which proposes a solution to a real life policy problem while weighing its positive and negative effects.
From the report and the student's academic transcript, a number of finalists are chosen.
The finalists are then interviewed by five-member panels selected by the Truman Foundation. Typically, panelists are drawn from a pool of university presidents, deans, professors, state judges and former Truman Scholars.
Rose said the 20-minute interview was intense.
"We try to structure our interviews so that they are challenging," said Brandenberg. "We like to see that our applicants have a commitment to self."
After graduation, Rose said she intends to pursue her graduate degree at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.