SU is one of eight universities to win prestigious scholarships

SU is one of eight universities to win prestigious scholarshipsMay 24, 2002Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Syracuse University is moving in some pretty illustrious company. It is one of eight universities around the country whose students have been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, a Truman Scholarship and a Goldwater Scholarship for the upcoming academic year. The other universities to achieve this for the coming year are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, Stanford, Miami University of Ohio and the University of Washington.

Grace E. Yu of Montrose, Calif., a political science and history major in the College of Arts and Sciences who graduated in December, was named the second Rhodes Scholar in the University’s history. Yu is the recipient of several University awards, including the highest undergraduate academic honor, Syracuse University Scholar.

Rhodes Scholars are chosen not just for their academic achievements. Such traits as character, leadership potential and physical vigor are taken into account. The scholarships were established after the death of Cecil Rhodes in 1902. Rhodes hoped the scholars would benefit from education at Oxford, then return to their home countries, enriched by the experience and able to contribute to closer international relations.

Jana Chandler, a junior policy studies major with a minor in African American studies, won a $30,000 Truman Scholarship. Of that, $3,000 will help to pay for her senior year at SU. The other $27,000 will go toward graduate study. Chandler plans to attend law school, and hopes to practice civil rights law. She is the ninth SU student to win the Truman Scholarship.

Chandler was one of 77 Truman Scholars selected this spring. The Truman Scholarship Foundation was established by Congress in 1975 as a memorial to President Harry S. Truman. In addition to the scholarship money, Truman Scholars 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 in the top quarter of their class and be committed to careers in government or the not-for-profit sector.

Chandler served a year in SU’s Student Government Association. This year she was vice president of SU’s chapter of the NAACP, and will be president next year. She was a Gates Millennium Scholar in the program’s inaugural year, 2000-2001. This spring, she spent the semester in Namibia.

Karma Parsons of Olyphant, Pa., a 2002 graduate of The College of Arts and Sciences, received the Goldwater Scholarship.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship was created to honor former Sen. Barry Goldwater through the operation of an education scholarship program, financed by a permanent trust fund endowment, designed to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. It provides $7,500 per year for educational expenses to students majoring in these fields. The foundation awards up to 300 Goldwater Scholarships nationwide.

“We are very proud of Grace, Jana and Karma for their achievements,” says Vice Chancellor and Provost Deborah A. Freund. “The awarding of these awards signifies the quality of our student body and the commitment of our faculty to creating a truly student-centered learning environment that nurtures students and allows them to excel at the highest levels. I look forward to more years that we will be in that triple category.”