KU News Release

KU junior from Wichita advances in national Truman scholarship competition

LAWRENCE — Jay Marshall Kimmel, a University of Kansas junior from Wichita planning a career in the foreign service, has been selected for the final round of competition for a 2007 Harry S. Truman Scholarship. The national scholarships provide up to $30,000 for college students preparing for leadership in public service.

About 75 scholarship winners will be announced March 27 by the Truman Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Kimmel is among about 200 finalists selected from more than 600 applicants nominated by their universities. Finalists will be interviewed by regional panels March 2-16.

Finalists from Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri will be interviewed Friday, March 9, by a panel of former Truman scholars in the Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse, 400 E. Ninth St., Kansas City, Mo.

Truman scholars are chosen on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and the likelihood of “making a difference.” Truman scholars must work in public service for three years following completion of a foundation-funded graduate degree program as a condition of receiving Truman funds.

Since 1981, 16 KU students have become Truman scholars. The Truman Scholarship Foundation was established by Congress in 1975 and made its first scholarship awards in 1977.

Kimmel’s career goals include working in foreign service as an analyst focused on trade policy with developing nations. He is majoring in economics and political science with a co-major in international studies. He speaks five languages including English. Specializing in Central Asian languages at KU, Kimmel has studied Uzbek, Uyghur, Russian and Turkish. He is the son of John and Karen Kimmel of Wichita and a graduate of Wichita Southeast High School.

This summer, Kimmel will complete an internship with the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in Washington, D.C. In April, Kimmel will present a paper titled “Educational Choices and Identity in Tajikistan” at the 12th annual Association for the Study of Nationalities conference at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University.

Since fall 2006, Kimmel has served as a translator for recently arrived Uzbekistan refugees in the Kansas City area. Kimmel spent the 2005-06 academic year in Tajikistan as a National Security Education Program/David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholar. He also received a Social Sciences Research Council Fellowship to study intermediate Uyghur in a summer workshop at Indiana University. He received an Undergraduate Research Award for his study of the intra-state conflict in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Kimmel is a National Merit Scholar and a Harley S. Nelson Scholar in economics and political science, a scholarship given only to the top two or three students in those departments. He is a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, an honor society for political science majors. Kimmel was the founding president of the KU Model United Nations group. He was one of 20 sophomores selected to participate in the University Scholars Program and is in the University Honors Program. He also works as a teaching assistant in KU’s economics department.

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