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Occidental College Receives Truman Foundation Honor Institution Award
Occidental College has received a prestigious Truman Foundation Honor Institution Award for actively encouraging its students to pursue careers in public service.
The award also recognizes Oxy’s success at helping its students win Truman Scholarships. Nine Truman scholars have come from Oxy over the years – six in the last decade.
In March, David Flores, a 43-year-old Occidental psychology-health policy major from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, was one of 70 college juniors nationwide to win a $30,000 Truman Scholarship. Flores plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate in clinical psychology.
Occidental is one of the few small liberal arts colleges to win the foundation’s honor institution award. Previous recipients of the award include Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and Columbia.
"Occidental has always seen itself as a private institution with a public mission, namely, to produce leaders for our emerging global society,” Oxy President Ted Mitchell said. “This award is a clear affirmation of the success of our faculty and students in carrying out that mission."
The Harry Truman Scholarship Foundation is based in Washington, D.C., and serves as a memorial to the nation's 33rd president. Scholars are eligible to receive $3,000 for the senior year of undergraduate education and $27,000 for graduate studies. Former Truman scholars serve as managers of government programs, legislators and aides, foreign service officers, teachers, staff members in policy analysis and research organizations, attorneys for government agencies, public defenders, professors, and professional staff in advocacy organizations and not-for-profit institutions.