NORMAN – University of Oklahoma honors student Jeremy Allen has been selected as a recipient of the Truman Scholarship. Allen won the prestigious award based on his leadership potential, intellectual ability and the likelihood of “making a difference.” He is the ninth OU student to be honored with the national award since 2003.
“The University of Oklahoma is extremely proud that a Truman Scholarship has been awarded to Jeremy Allen,” said OU President David L. Boren. “He is a worthy recipient and is an outstanding scholar and student leader.”
Recipients of the Truman Scholarship receive a $30,000 scholarship toward graduate school and the opportunity to participate in professional development programming to help prepare them for careers in public service leadership.
Allen, a junior majoring in economics, environmental sustainability and Chinese, received a U.S. Department of State’s Critical Languages Scholarship to study last summer in Xi’An, China. Following his time at Shaanxi Normal University, he spent the 2015-2016 academic year first at Peking University and then at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, through the Boren Award for International Study, sponsored by the National Security Education Program. After earning his bachelor’s degree from OU in 2017, he plans to pursue a law degree at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and then begin a career with the Environmental Protection Agency, where he interned in 2014 as a Cortez A.M. Ewing Fellow. Eventually, he intends to work in the EPA’s Office of Global Affairs, specifically the Asian affairs program.
At OU, Allen served as an interdisciplinary analyst at the Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth and as president of the Honors Student Association. He has been a longtime team member of the Ethics Bowl and has held active roles in the OU Student Government Association, where he has served in Student Congress and as Sooner Freshman Council co-chair. Named Outstanding Junior in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, he was a Capitol Scholar in 2014, a U.S. Senate Youth Program Delegate in 2012, a “Big Man on Campus” and a 2015 Cortez A.M. Ewing Scholar. Last fall, Allen attended the Conference of Youth in Tokyo and co-organized “COP in my City,” a simulation of a United Nations climate negotiation.
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation was created by Congress in 1975 to be the nation’s living memorial to President Harry S. Truman. In 2016, there were 775 candidates for the award nominated by 305 colleges and universities – a record number of applications and institutions. The 200 finalists for the award were interviewed in March and early April at one of 16 regional selection panels. Fifty-four new Truman Scholars were selected in 2016. They will receive their awards in a ceremony at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum on May 29.
