Two Yale juniors named Truman Scholars for their leadership in public service

JT Flowers ’17 and Sean Moore ’17 were awarded 2016 Truman Scholarships on the basis of their academic success and leadership accomplishments, as well as their likelihood of becoming public service leaders.

Flowers and Moore are among 54 students from 47 U.S. colleges and universities to be chosen as Truman Scholars. The new class of Truman Scholars, all college juniors, were selected from a record number of applicants and institutions: 775 candidates nominated by 305 colleges and universities.

Truman Scholars receive up to $30,000 for graduate study. Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions; leadership training; career and graduate school counseling; and special internship opportunities within the federal government. Recipients must be U.S. citizens, have outstanding leadership potential and communication skills, be academically excellent, and be committed to careers in government or the non-profit sector.

Sean Moore

is a political science major at Yale University. He is a Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholar and a Yale Law School Liman Summer Fellow. At Yale, he serves on the board of the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project as head of men’s mentoring. Moore was homeless from age 18 to 21 and during that time, he discovered a trajectory to self-sufficiency and a deep commitment to service. Moore hopes to serve homeless and reentering populations by creating and refining programs that offer much-needed resources for success.

JT Flowers

is double majoring in global affairs and ethnicity, race & migration. He is the founder and president of A Leg Even, a nonprofit organization geared toward facilitating the academic and professional success of lower-income college freshmen at Yale. Over his three years at Yale, Flowers has had the opportunity to study and do research in six different countries, where he has worked on issues ranging from international governance to refugee rights and urban education reform. His studies are centered around the intersectional impacts of culture, class, and institutions on effective policymaking and integrative social change, with a focus on increasing access to opportunities and socioeconomic mobility in under-resourced environments.

The Truman Scholarship Foundation was established by Congress in 1975 as the federal memorial to the 33rd president of the United States. The foundation awards scholarships for college students to attend graduate school in preparation for careers in government or elsewhere in public service. The activities of the foundation are supported by a special trust fund in the U.S. Treasury. There have been 3,077 Truman Scholars selected since the first awards were made in 1977.

The Truman Scholars will assemble May 24 for a leadership development program at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and they will receive their awards in a ceremony at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, on May 29.