| AU named a Truman Foundation Honor
Institution BY MIKE UNGER 
Photo by Jeff Watts
Interim President Neil Kerwin hands the Truman Foundation Honor Institution plaque to Paula Warrick, director of AU’s Office of Merit Awards as Fred Slabach, executive secretary of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, and MIchael Mass, director of the University Honors Program, look on. It was a Truman show to
remember. Beneath pristine skies on a perfect fall day in the garden of AU’s president’s house on Oct. 30, Fred Slabach, executive secretary of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, formally anointed AU as a Truman Foundation Honor Institution. “I believe the respective missions of American University and the Truman Foundation are the same,” Slabach said. “They further President Truman’s vision that ‘free and inquiring minds with unlimited access to the sources of knowledge can be the architects of a peaceful and prosperous world.’” Founded in 1977, the Truman Foundation aims to recognize college juniors who are committed to careers in public service. Winners are awarded $30,000 toward graduate school, and they take part in leadership training and fellowship opportunities with their fellow winners. “Because of the competitive nature of the scholarship, it is unusual for a single university to produce a large number of scholars, but American has produced 11,” Slabach said. “Four of the last six years, the Truman Foundation has selected American University students as scholars. That’s a tribute to Paula Warrick and the many faculty and staff involved in American University’s process.” Warrick, director of AU’s Office of Merit Awards, plays an integral role in recruiting students to pursue the award and preparing them to navigate their way through the difficult months-long application process, which includes written exams and, if they are named a finalist, intense interviews. Interim President Neil Kerwin said the plaque Slabach presented him at the reception should hang on Warrick’s office wall. “It confirms AU’s commitment to pursuing public service as an activity, and the quality of our student body,” Warrick said of the honor. Mingling among the crowd were four past AU Truman Scholars, each of whom cited their achievement as having boosted their academic and professional careers. “My policy statement and my graduate work really crystallized for me everything I wanted to do and helped lead me to the energy industry,” said 1991 Truman Scholar Jason Hicks ’92, who
now works for a global power company. Rick Evanchec didn’t win a scholarship, but he was a finalist in 2001. “The whole process is structured to make you think about what you’d like to do,” said Evanchec, now an analyst for the Justice Department. “It gets you at a good time. I was just beginning to think about a plan for my life. I already knew I wanted to get into public service, but it confirmed for me that this is what I wanted to do. It focuses your energies. It really was a great experience.” Kerwin praised AU’s faculty and staff, but made clear who he believes deserves the lions share of the credit for AU’s exceptional record of Truman Scholarship achievement. “It is of course, first, a tribute to our students, who put themselves out in front of a highly competitive group for what is a rigorous competition,” he said. “This is an institution that has always placed public service at the very top of its agenda. An award like this suggests we have made some progress in that department.” |
