The Brigham Young University Truman Committee has nominated three students to the national Truman Foundation for the prestigious Truman Scholarships, worth $30,000 each for graduate study. Truman criteria are consistent with the aims of a BYU education, and include extensive community and public service, scholarship and leadership elements.
The 2007 nominees are Darren Jackson, Chad Losee and Robert Plowman. Approximately 75 Truman Scholarship recipients will be announced on March 27, 2007 from among the 600 nominees from colleges and universities throughout the United States. Truman Scholars are expected to become “change agents” and influence public policies, improving the lives of people both within and outside the United States.
As a part of the application each nominee proposed possible improvements in public policies. Jackson is from Virginia, majoring in international relations, and has proposed a series of meetings with potential Mexican immigrants to inform them of the difficulties of life in the United States.
Losee is from Utah and also is majoring in international relations. He has suggested that the spread of terrorism can be better contained by an increased international commitment to helping countries emerging from civil war promote the rule of law once again.
Plowman, triple majoring in neuroscience, Latin American studies, and geography, is from Illinois and has proposed changes involving better education and preventive measures to save millions in the United States and around the world from pneumonia, measles, influenza and tuberculosis infections and deaths each year.
Past BYU nominees — such as David Barlow in 1994, Amy Bice in 1997, and most recently, Ryan Keller and Peter Stone in 2003 — have gone on to become Truman Scholars.
