Two students receive Truman Scholarship
April 27Juniors Safiya Subegdjo and Amber Rose Johnson were recently chosen by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation to become two of the nation's 59 2014 Truman Scholars. According to the foundation's website, the Truman Scholar title is awarded to college juniors on the basis of their academic achievement, leadership and the likelihood they will pursue careers in government or the non-profit sector. Students were chosen from 655 candidates nationwide to receive this scholarship, which provides $30,000 for graduate school, along with priority admission to leading graduate schools and access to internships with the federal government. Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Alan Solomont expressed excitement for the selections of Subegdjo and Johnson. "We're very proud to have two students, both of whom have really not just excelled, but been exemplars of active citizenship and civic engagement," Solomont said. Johnson could not be reached for comment prior to publication; however, Subegdjo explained that she first heard about the scholarship over the summer and began the application process at the beginning of the school year. "The application was really extensive and time consuming," she said. "There were eight to 10 little essays ranging from talking about your leadership experience to your public service experience and what you wanted to do in the next three years, what you want to do in the next seven years. You really had to know every detail about your future." The last part of the application was a policy proposal in which applicants crafted a solution for a problem they saw in the world, Subegdjo said. "I wanted to do something that I was already interested in and had already done work in, and I do a lot of work with TU-RAP [Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program]," she said. "So in my proposal I talked about implementing mental health screenings for resettled refugees." Subegdjo explained that refugees often come to the United States from war-torn countries where they have fled persecution and violence. Upon arrival, they lack treatment and access to beneficial physical and mental health care. "One of the ways I [sought] to fix this was implementing a 15-minute questionnaire survey for refugees once they come into the U.S. to kind of assess where they are in terms of their mental health status and see ... whether they had any kind of condition that could be treated earlier on, rather than later," she said. "Because when you have a mental health condition, that's obviously going to be a huge barrier to achieving independence in a completely new foreign country." Once screened, patients would be paired with the right services to receive treatment, Subegdjo added. The Truman Scholarship emphasizes choosing people who are confident that they will spend their futures in public service, Subegdjo said. "The Truman Foundation only wanted to pick people who they thought would actually carry out the mission and their passion they had written about in the application," she said. "So for me, I ultimately want to work on health issues within refugee and immigrant communities. I'd like to get my medical degree, so that's where I'm probably going to be using the resources." Subegdjo stressed the importance of not only picking a problem that was personally relevant, but also one for which she could realistically provide a solution. According to Subegdjo, the most valuable aspect of the reward, beside the $30,000 for graduate school, is the connections to those in public service. "In the first few hours after being notified that I'd won, my inbox was flooded with dozens of emails from Truman Scholars just congratulating me and welcoming me to the community," she said. "I was just blown away by the warmth and in an instant I was immediately connected to some of the most prominent public service people in the country, so I was really excited about that." "[Subegdjo] is a great example of everything we wish for in the Tisch Scholars Program, and we're just delighted that she [has] been recognized this way," Solomont said.
