Contact: Sammy McDavid
Jennifer L. Phillips
A Starkville senior at Mississippi State is the latest student at the university to be selected for a national Harry S. Truman Scholarship.
Jennifer L. Phillips, already a John C. Stennis Scholar in Political Science, is among 76 students from 63 institutions chosen to receive the $30,000 academic awards created by Congress in 1975 as the official United States tribute to the 33rd president. Like other scholars, she will receive $3,000 for her senior year and $27,000 for graduate-level study.
The daughter of Judith Phillips of Starkville and Edward Phillips of Columbus, she previously was awarded MSU Academic and U.S. Air Force ROTC scholarships.
Phillips, a Starkville High School graduate who will be commissioned in May as an Air Force second lieutenant, is a member of the University Honors Program and the MSU-based Mississippi Model Security Council, as well as the Starkville Election Commission.
Through her MMSC involvement, Phillips and another MSU political science major were among a group of university students and young professionals selected last summer to attend a meeting of the Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution in The Hague, Netherlands.
"Jennifer is an outstanding student, one certain to continue earning recognition in a public service career," said Jack White, director of University Honors and Distinguished External Scholarships programs at MSU. "We are proud of all her achievements, but especially this latest selection as a national Truman Scholar."
White said the new scholars will assemble May 19 for a weeklong leadership development program at William Jewel College in Liberty, Mo. Their awards will be formally presented May 26 in ceremonies at the Truman Library in Independence.
Since the 1980s, MSU has produced a total of 15 Truman Scholars, an achievement recognized in 1998 by the sponsoring Truman Foundation with its Honor Institution Award. At the time, the Starkville school was one of only five universities and colleges--also Columbia, Dartmouth, University of Chicago, and Claremont McKenna--to be so praised.