Blackburn Institute

Kendra Key Honored as Truman Scholar

July 4, 2009

For the fourth time in 10 years, a Blackburn fellow has been honored with the highly prestigious Truman Scholarship.  Kendra Key—a rising senior, a 2007-2008 fellow, and Student Chairperson for the 2008-2009 school year—is one of 60 students nationwide selected as a 2009 Truman Scholar.  She joins Adam Harbinson, Jamie Gibson, and John Joseph as fellows that have achieved this nationwide recognition; Adam, Jamie, and John received the award in 2007, 2002, and 2000 respectively. 

Established in honor of President Harry S. Truman, the Scholarship’s mission 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; and to provide them with financial support for graduate study, leadership training, and fellowship with other students who are committed to making a difference through public service.” As a part of the application process, potential scholars are asked to outline examples of leadership, particularly satisfying public service activities, societal problems or needs that the applicant wishes to alleviate once employed in public service, and to provide an outlook of where they hope to be in the next five to ten years.  After answering these questions, applicants must then complete a five hundred word policy proposal outlining a legislative solution to an issue that is of importance to the applicant.

Kendra’s policy proposal addressed instituting a bottle bill in the state of Alabama as means to create jobs and promote environmental awareness among Alabama residents.

As of 2005, all scholarship recipients are required to work in public service for three of the seven years following a Truman Foundation funded graduate degree program.  Adam, who wrote his policy proposal on healthcare and recently was named a 2009-2010 George J. Mitchell Scholar, will spend the next year studying rural development at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

The national recognition by the Truman Foundation of three Blackburn Fellows in ten years reflects the caliber of students being selected by the Institute.  Over the next several years we look forward to that number continuing to grow.

---