FIU Student Receives Unprecedented Recognition

Kelsey Vaughan

An Honors College student majoring in International Relations has been named FIU’s first Harry S. Truman Scholar. Kelsey Vaughan was awarded the prestigious and highly competitive scholarship after a successful interview in Boston. She is one of only two winners from schools in the state of Florida (the other student is from UF), and nationally, she is one of 77 award recipients selected from 609 nominations and 200 finalists.

“I still can’t believe it. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” she said. “When I went to Boston and met some of the other finalists, I didn’t think I had a chance.”

The Truman scholarship recognizes college juniors with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the non-profit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in the public service. Students are selected on the basis of intellectual ability and likelihood of “making a difference.” Each scholarship provides approximately $2,000 for the senior year and $24,000 for graduate study.

With support from The Honors College, Vaughan was able to participate in an internship with the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia, where she studied and worked on issues of human trafficking and prostitution. Under the mentorship of Bill Beesting, assistant dean of Undergraduate Studies and Honors College fellow, she wrote a policy statement for the Truman scholarship about the issues she had confronted during her internship, recommending the formation of an international coalition to control human trafficking.

“We should take a more international approach to develop policies to stop human trafficking,” Vaughan proposed.

A third-year student who transferred from the University of Southern Maine after her freshman year, Vaughan has maintained a 3.96 grade point average despite taking 18 credit hours per semester and working part-time for her entire college experience. She currently works 25 hours per week as a program officer in the Miami regional office of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Foreign Missions.

Vaughan is graduating later this month. In the fall, she will pursue a graduate degree in International Development Studies.