CAS junior Amina Anekwe and Tandon senior Cameron Bedard received the $30,000 Truman Scholarship for initiatives in public service, making NYU one of five universities in the country to host two Truman scholars this year.
This year, 54 college undergraduates across 49 institutions who plan to attend graduate school and pursue a career in public service received the scholarship. Since the Truman Scholars program was created as part of a congressional act in 1975, it has awarded over 3,500 students — 19 of which have been from NYU.
Anekwe, a double major in English and sociology, was nominated for her efforts to bolster access to menstrual products in Jamaica. She has built a menstrual product pantry in her hometown, worked on policy initiatives to make menstrual equity a human right and partnered with GrassROOTS Community Foundation’s Global Menstrual Equity Council to make period products more available.
Anekwe is a first-generation American-born citizen and currently works at the Homeplace Research Collective at NYU, sits on NYU’s first-year Expository Writing Student Advisory Board, and is part of the Dean’s Service Honor Corps and the CAS Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council. She said she plans to use the scholarship to pursue a graduate education in public health before going on to law school so that she can create policy-driven, community-centered solutions to menstrual inequity.
“Being able to pursue graduate school I would have never thought was possible in this way, prior to getting the scholarship,” Anekwe told WSN. “So, for my family as well, it’s opening doors I could have never thought was possible.”
The scholars both completed an eight-month-long application process, including a preliminary application through NYU in October before attending sessions with coaches from November through early February. Then, after becoming finalists, they went through final interviews in the following two months. Anekwe and Bedard were awarded $30,000 each to be used for advancing their public service initiatives and education.
Bedard, who studies computer engineering, received the grant for his work to create a Parkinson’s disease detection device. In an interview with WSN, Bedard said that although humanities students typically earn the grant, his work in public service made him eligible for the opportunity.
“One of the big turning points was taking professor Giuseppe Loianno’s class, Embedded Systems, and the final project was to build a Parkinson’s detection device for tremors,” Bedard said in an interview with WSN. “I will likely be using the award to fund research, like use it as a research brand. I really want to do research into wearables for principal preventative medicine.”
Bedard spent five years in the U.S. Air Force before coming to NYU. At the university, he worked on projects for NYU’s Robotics Design Team and the Agile Robotics Perception Lab, including research for a kidney stone ablation system. He is the first Truman Scholar from the Tandon School of Engineering.
Truman scholarships are sponsored by its board of trustees composed of attorneys, lawyers and politicians, including Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and U.S. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. Scholars have gone on to work as Supreme Court justices, U.S. senators and other prominent politicians, with known alumni including former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, city Comptroller Brad Lander and Jon Favreau, the director of speechwriting for former U.S. President Barack Obama.
“Prior to NYU, I didn’t know that you could have a career in public service and that that could actually be something that you pursue,” Anekwe said. “NYU has really helped show me that I don’t have to fit within the traditional boxes — that I can just do my passions and make a difference in the way I see fit.”
Contact Yanik Jhaveri at news@nyunews.com.
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