University of Arizona junior Joseph Fu and Arizona State University junior Megan McGinnity have been selected to receive the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship.
Fu and McGinnity, both Flinn Scholars from the class of 2003, are two of 65 students nationwide to receive the award, which provides students with financial support for graduate study and leadership training. Truman Scholars are selected on the basis of leadership potential and commitment to careers in public service.
Fu, a double major in philosophy and molecular and cellular biology, has devoted much of his undergraduate career to international public service. He spent a summer in India teaching HIV/AIDS prevention and education, worked in Thailand as a surgical assistant and emergency room volunteer, and served as a project coordinator working with the Mexican government to establish community services in the small town of Imuris, Sonora.
An economics and political science major, McGinnity also devoted much of her undergraduate experience to service abroad. After receiving a David L. Boren National Security Education Program Undergraduate Scholarship, she spent a semester in Romania conducting language studies and working in a state-run orphanage. McGinnity also received a Circumnavigators Foundation Travel/Research Grant to conduct research around the world on the economics of human trafficking.
With his Truman Scholarship, Fu plans to pursue a five-year joint degree program at the University of California in San Francisco to earn a doctorate in medicine and a master’s of public health.
Upon completing his graduate studies, Fu will likely dedicate a year of service to Doctors Without Borders, followed by a two-year residency program in preventative medicine. He hopes to someday work for the World Health Organization’s United States-Mexico Border Field office, promoting health care strategies that improve the health of migrants.
McGinnity plans to pursue a master of science in foreign service and a master of arts in economics joint degree at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Upon completing her graduate studies, McGinnity will likely work as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. McGinnity’s ultimate goals are to serve the National Security Council in a support position and to work as a U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
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