For the second straight year, a Tufts student has won a Truman Scholarship, a prestigious public service award awarded to college juniors.
Junior Julia S. Goldberg was officially announced as a Truman Scholar yesterday.
According to its Web site, the mission of the Truman Scholarship Foundation is "to find and recognize college juniors with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in the public service."
Recipients of the scholarship also receive $30,000 for graduate study, leadership training and fellowship with other students who plan to pursue careers in public service.
Juniors Scott Merrick and Anjuli Fahlberg were also finalists in the competition.
Goldberg, a double major in Spanish and Community Health, is currently studying abroad in Spain and could not be reached for comment.
She is pursuing a master's degree in public health through the University's five-year Master's of Public Health program.
She is interested in studying women's and maternal health in areas along the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Goldberg is also a scholar at the University College for Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS).
Her principal project as a 2004-2005 UCCPS scholar was entitled "Community Education Through Mutual Public Health Collaboration." Its stated aim was to make immigrant women and families who use the East Somerville Clinic feel more of a part of the community.
Goldberg also demonstrated a passion for social service in high school, when she collected and distributed over 10,000 pairs of used running shoes in rural Honduras and throughout her community.
Kate Nash, the University's Coordinator of Scholarship and Enrichment Programs, helped Goldberg through the Truman Scholarship application process.
"I think she's had that passion [for social service] for a long time, and it's influenced not only what she's done at Tufts but what she has to do in the future," Nash said.
Nash said the long application process for Truman Scholarships involves multiple steps, the first of which is an internal application process open to all Tufts juniors.
Nash and others at the office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education recruit students, ask faculty to recommend students and hold information sessions about the scholarship.
Nash and her colleagues then review the applications and select four juniors to nominate for the scholarship.
"We have a pool of wonderful students, and have to struggle to winnow it down," she said.
Students selected as finalists then conduct regional interviews. Goldberg had to travel to her home-state of Arizona for her interview. Nash said that her office conducts mock interviews with the finalists to help them prepare.
As part of their application, contenders also must present a policy proposal that relates to their field of interest.
The proposal must address a controversial and well-documented problem that involves either the U.S. government, a substantial segment of the U.S. population, the applicant's state or the environment.
Nash said Goldberg's policy proposal stood out among those of the Truman finalists.
"She had a very strong and coherent policy proposal," Nash said.
Dorothy Levinson was the fourth Tufts junior nominated for the scholarship.
Senior Jeremy Sueker was the recipient of the award last year.
"He [Sueker] was our first in about a decade, so we're very happy about two in a row," Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser told the Daily in an e-mail.
