UM Student Wins Prestigious Truman Scholarship

UM student Mara Menahan recently won a Truman Scholarship, a prestigious national award that provides top U.S. university student leaders up to $30,000 for graduate or professional school.

Truman Scholars are selected on the basis of leadership achievements and potential in public service. Menahan, a Davidson Honors College student who majors in environmental studies and geography with minors in climate change studies and wilderness studies, is the University’s fourteenth Truman Scholar.

Fifty-nine students were selected as 2014 Truman Scholars out of 655 candidates from nearly 300 colleges and universities. On top of the $30,000 scholarship, Truman Scholars receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, as well as leadership training, career and graduate school counseling, and internship opportunities with the federal government.

Menahan is a graduate of Helena High School and the daughter of Mike Menahan and Stacy Tureck of Helena. She plans to fight climate change by addressing urban sprawl through the open-space planning process.

Menahan’s passionate and professional leadership in a variety of campus and community activities helped her achieve the award. She has been a leader at the UM FLAT—Forum for Living with Appropriate Technology; served as the only undergraduate on the university’s delegation to the UN 2013 Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland; participated in the Bhutan Ride for Climate; served as a moderator for the Community Climate Summit; completed an internship with Montana Audubon to develop visual communication tools to explain the hazards of climate change to the bird population; and interned as a wilderness ranger with the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation. She also served as vice president and women’s captain of the UM Cycling Team.