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| vol. 24, no. 21 | April 23, 1999 |
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| vol. 24, no. 21 | April 23, 1999 |
BY HANNAH FAIRFIELD
Two Columbia College juniors have won prestigious Truman Scholarships, awarded to only 65 students nationwide who have exhibited strong leadership potential and commitment to careers in government or the not-for-profit sector.
Charlotte Sanders and Yahonnes Cleary, both political science majors, will receive up to $30,000, which consists of $3,000 for their senior year and $27,000 for two or three years of graduate study.
Yahonnes Cleary
Yahonnes Cleary, who is studying abroad in Zimbabwe this semester, is looking at poverty issues in sub-Saharan Africa that relates to his interests in poverty issues and welfare reform in the United States.
"While studying grassroots development in Zimbabwe, I've become interested in the extent to which a strategy that focuses on empowerment and community self-reliance could be used for overcoming poverty in urban America," he said in a message sent from Africa.
Cleary's personal experiences with poverty instilled an ambition to improve urban and social policy, he said. Cleary grew up in public housing projects in the South Bronx as one of eight children.
In the summer after his sophomore year at Columbia, Cleary earned an internship at the Work Experience Program in the NYC Parks and Recreation department. He was one of a few interns selected to teach job readiness workshops to welfare recipients seeking employment in the Parks Department Job Assistance Center. Despite his heavy political science courseload, he continued to work at the center each week during the school year.
Cleary has been a leader in campus groups, the United Students of Color Council and the Black Students Organization; has tutored math to third-graders in an inner-city school, and has volunteered at the Harlem district office of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).
"Many inner city conditions greatly hinder and often reverse individual potential," he said. "And because these conditions and their effects have pervaded my personal life, they have strengthened and guided my ambition toward addressing them."
Charlotte Sanders
Sanders, a Virginia native, has concentrated her interests in American government, focusing on how federal funding affects policy within US schools. She eventually plans to attend law school, but wants to gain first-hand experience by joining Teach America for a few years.
"I'd like to be able to mold policy that affects educational interests in the country," she said. "Ideally, I want to combine my interests in teaching and in policy in order to work in the legal wing of the department of education or the educational division of the justice department."
Sanders has already begun carving her niche in policy. After her first year at Columbia, she interned at Rep. Herbert Bateman's (R-Va.) office. During the following summer, she worked at the Legal Aid Society, helping to organize a compliance unit within the Juvenile Rights Division so that she could follow up on care given to children whose welfare had been determined in the courts.
During the school year, Sanders coordinates a tutoring program at a local junior high school and serves as a resident advisor to first-year students. This summer, she is working full time at the New York law firm of Alterman & Boop.
The Truman Scholarship Foundation was established by Congress in 1975 as the federal memorial to President Harry S. Truman. In addition to monetary awards, the Truman Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling and special internship opportunities within the federal government.