The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation is a federal memorial to our 33rd President. It is a merit-based scholarship of up to $30,000 given to a college student who plans to go to graduate school and pursue a career in public service. This award is given to a full-time junior nominated by a university’s Truman Scholarship Faculty Representative. The junior must be in the upper quarter of their class and a U.S. citizen. According to the Truman Scholarship Foundation website, only about 800 candidates across the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico were selected to fill out the application; those applications were then narrowed down to only 198 finalists this year. Finalists are each interviewed by Regional Review Panels in March and early April.
Our very own Clare Buchanan is one of those remarkable finalists. She traveled to D.C. for her interview on March 2. I had the privilege of interviewing Buchanan about this experience. To fully understand the process that placed her on the D.C.-bound Amtrak, I asked what the application process included. Buchanan explained, “The application was definitely intense. I had to provide extensive background on my extracurricular activities, internships, and jobs, going all the way back to high school…I sort of had an identity crisis of like — who am I? What am I good at? What is my purpose? What change do I want to make in the world? But once I honed in on what matters to me, which is the importance of local nonprofit journalism to combat environmental injustice, everything made sense.”
After discovering everything Buchanan poured into just the application process, I learned there was a dinner the night before the interviews, and I inquired about that experience as well. She responded, “I heard a lot of horror stories from other finalists about the interview experience…the interview is meant to be unorthodox and challenging…They (the interviewers) questioned me on the future of journalism and how disinformation and misinformation are shaping our current democracy…I mentioned The Salemite and our mission. But, I definitely left the interview feeling like I could have said more and somehow also could have said less, but I think that is the nature of this experience.”
Lastly, I gave Buchanan the opportunity to express any last remarks on this experience as a whole. She left me with “I am just still in complete awe at my ability to have been a part of this experience. I am very thankful for Dr. Vail’s encouragement throughout the process. It was really marvelous to represent Salem College on a national scale.”
Our small pond is now known by a few more, all thanks to Buchanan, who represents the best Salem College has to offer.
