Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 26-May 3, 1999

Volume 27, Number 30

Two Yale College juniors receive
prestigious Truman Scholarships

Two Yale College juniors are among a distinguished group of undergraduates nationwide selected as 1999 Truman Scholars by the Washington, D.C.-based Harry Truman Scholarship Foundation.

Dalia Hochman of Lexington, Massachusetts, and Kimberly Jones of New Haven are among 65 students from 56 U.S. colleges and universities selected as 1999 Truman Scholars. They were chosen by 19 independent selection panels on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of "making a difference."

The 65 scholars were selected from among 657 candidates nominated by 332 colleges and universities.

Established by Congress in 1975, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation awards provide up to $30,000 to help cover tuition and other expenses for a maximum of four years of undergraduate and graduate study. Each Truman Scholar receives $3,000 for the senior year of college and between $9,000 and $13,500 per year for up to three years of graduate education leading to a career in government.

Specific selection criteria include outstanding leadership potential and an established record of public and community service; a desire to influence public policies; intellectual strength, communication skills and analytical abilities; and a commitment to a career in government or elsewhere in the public sector.

With a double major in history and teacher preparation and a good deal of teaching experience already under her belt, Hochman sees her award as an "affirmation of public education." While at Yale she has dedicated herself to a number of community projects that draw on her skills as a teacher, and next year she will be student teaching in a New Haven public school as part of the requirements for certification.

"A lot of people should be teachers. It's a great profession," she says, noting that while teaching in public schools is gaining in popularity at Yale, it is still a far-from-typical career goal for most Ivy League students.

Hochman intends to use her Truman scholarship to pursue her interests in education policy and reform. In the meantime, another scholarship awarded by her college will enable her to do research in "history under apartheid" in South Africa this summer.

Jones intends to use her Truman Scholarship to help finance her law school education after she graduates from Yale in 2000. With the ambition of working as an attorney in the public sector, she also plans to get a master's degree in public policy.

"I'm primarily interested in issues of poverty," she says. Among the possible career choices she is considering are working in a government agency, a think-tank or an advocacy organization such as the Children's Defense Fund.

A political science major at Yale and a graduate of Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, Jones already has built a long résumé of community service, which includes helping homeless people at Columbus House with a recycling project and offering life skills workshops to adults on public assistance. As a Yale Presidential Public Service scholar in the summer of 1997, she did an internship at the juvenile services department of the New Haven Police Force.

The 1999 Truman Scholarship recipients will assemble May 23 for a week-long leadership development program at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and receive their awards in a special ceremony at The Elms Resort and Spa in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, on May 30.

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Classic comedy by Noel Coward will top off the season at the Yale Rep
New degree program to prepare oncology nurse practitioners
Susan Cook returns to Yale to head Cambodian Genocide Program
Two Yale College juniors receive prestigious Truman Scholarships
Alumna Jackson Lee recalls days when 'We had to change the world'
Staff member leads campaign to 'smart-wire' children in first years of life
Poets Ashbery and Hollander to read from their works
Drama School to present 'Life is a Dream'
Merger creates Council of European Studies
Visiting professor to discuss varying concepts of Europe
Symposium to consider future of broadcast, cable and net technologies
Longtime Yale Press editor-in-chief Edward Tripp dies at age 79
Forestry School to honor late librarian
Campus Notes