UNT student is a Truman Scholarship finalist

For the eighth time in nine years, a UNT student has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

Sarah Mathis, a junior emergency administration and disaster planning major, is one of 202 students in the nation selected as finalists. She will have her final interviews for the scholarship on March 15.

The Harry S. Truman Foundation awards scholarships to outstanding students who have demonstrated interest in federal, state or local government careers. Truman Scholarship recipients receive up to $3,000 for their senior year of undergraduate education and up to $27,000 for graduate studies.

Students are nominated for the scholarships by their universities. To be eligible, a student must apply as a college junior or senior. The student must plan to earn his or her bachelor's degree within three years, and also must have extensive records of public and community service.

Three of UNT's past finalists for the scholarship became Truman Scholars.

Mathis, 23, is one of 10 finalists from Texas in this year's competition. The other Texas finalists attend the University of Rochester, Princeton University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Texas at Dallas, Baylor University, Harvard University, Case Western Reserve University, Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Mathis says she is honored to compete for the Truman scholarship against other outstanding students.

"It's exciting to possibly have a scholarship to further my career in international development and public policy," she says.

She was nominated for the Truman Scholarship by a UNT committee that is meeting with her each week for practice interviews. Committee members include Al Bavon, associate professor of public administration; John Books, associate professor of political science; Alfred F. Hurley, professor of history and UNT chancellor/president emeritus; David Molina, associate professor of economics; and Peggy Tobolowsky, professor of criminal justice. James Duban, director of the Office for Nationally Competitive Scholarships, heads the committee.

Duban calls Mathis "an extraordinary student concerned with international development and emergency management and disaster response."

"Her range of public service is breathtaking and inspiring," he says.

Mathis says she witnessed the needs of individuals throughout the world while growing up in a military family and living in many different places.

"When I was 13, Turkish earthquake victims — within an already impoverished population — made me keenly aware that service above self would be an intimate part of my future," she says.

During high school, Mathis spent several summers volunteering in Morocco, northern parts of Vietnam and Botswana, Africa. She enrolled at UNT in 2001 intending to be a pre-medical student, but she decided UNT's emergency administration and disaster planning program would allow her "to focus on the entire relief process, not just the medical aspect" of developing nations.

"I realized that disaster policy is underrepresented, getting little attention until disaster strikes, then losing that attention after the crisis passes. When an underdeveloped country is stricken by disaster or conflict, its government often crumbles, its economy plummets and disease and famine wreak havoc," Mathis says. "I am convinced that disaster mitigation and relief must be paired with development."

Last summer, Mathis served in an emergency administration and disaster planning internship in Botswana. She was also the first UNT student selected for the university's NTDC Cooperative Governmental Intern Scholarship, which places students in Washington, D.C., for in-depth look at the American political process. Mathis was press assistant to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in Fall 2003. In addition, she was the first recipient of the Texas State Society's DC Scholarship, which is offered to any student from a Texas college or university who will be an intern in Washington, D.C.

Mathis is a 1999 graduate of New Life Christian Academy in Millbrook, Ala., where she was her class valedictorian. She maintains an equally high grade point average at UNT and is a member of the University Honors Program and Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society.

Gloria Cox, Honors Program director, says Mathis "is everything a Truman Scholar should be."

"It takes only a moment in Sarah's presence to realize what a special person she is – intelligent, talented and accomplished. And besides all that, she is friendly and kind and the very model of integrity," Cox says. "I am very proud that she is a member of the University Honors Program."

Mathis is a resident adviser in Bruce Hall, executive secretary of the Residence Life Advisor Council and a member of the Residence Hall Association and National Residence Hall Honorary Society.

Her community service includes running in a marathon and raising money as a member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, working with the homeless in Los Angeles and Atlanta and being a member-in-training of a Red Cross Disaster Action Team.

After receiving her bachelor's degree from UNT in May 2005, Mathis plans to earn a master's degree in international development from American University in Washington, D.C. She then plans to work several years for the U.S. Agency for International Development and eventually become a project development foreign officer for the agency.

BY NANCY KOLSTI nkolsti@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT plans second annual beautification day
• Cleanup continues at Clark Hall following small fire
• Spring brings Texas severe weather season
• Regents approve honorary degree, authorize new athletic center completion
• Staff awards presented at sack lunch
• April brings University, Alumni Appreciation, Honors days
• Faculty Senate hears provost's academic plan for future of UNT
• Division of University Relations, Communications and Marketing earns three national awards
• TAMS students are semifinalists in national science competition

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