College junior Zach McGrath received the 2026 Harry S. Truman Scholarship for his commitment to public service on April 24.<\/p>\n
McGrath, the only Penn honoree, is among 55 Truman scholars selected from a total of 781 candidates this year. The merit-based award funds up to $30,000 for graduate studies in preparation for public service careers.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, McGrath \u2014 who is studying political science \u2014 explained that he enjoys public service because \u201cit\u2019s the ultimate team sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI come from a military family, a military background, so service was always present in my life,\u201d McGrath added. \u201cI grew up really respecting people who dedicated themselves in their careers to public service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congress established the national Truman Foundation<\/a> in 1975 as a memorial to the 33rd president of the United States. The foundation recognizes juniors who demonstrate \u201coutstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service\u201d \u2014\u00a0which can include employment in government, nonprofit work, or the education sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n McGrath currently serves as director of Philadelphia Councilmember Isaiah Thomas\u2019 Youth-powered Policy Lab \u2014 a program that encourages Philadelphia high school and college students to address social issues via research and legislation. He plans to use the award to pursue graduate studies in public policy \u2014 after which he hopes to continue working in city government in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n The program only accepts nominations from institutions, not independent students. At Penn, students must submit a scholarship application to the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships by its November deadline to be considered for the nomination. \u00a0<\/p>\n McGrath emphasized the University\u2019s support, explaining that executive director of CURF Jane Morris \u201cwas quite helpful in mentoring me throughout the application process.\u201d<\/p>\n Morris told the DP that she has \u201cfound Zach to be truly committed to a life of public service.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s out there every day committing himself to this work,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n She explained that she \u201creally admires\u201d the Truman scholarship because it \u201cis about supporting young people who are going to be change makers in public service.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI look at Penn students, and that\u2019s who I see,\u201d Morris added.<\/p>\n At Penn, McGrath serves as vice chair of the Student Allocations Commission and a research assistant for Laura Perna, the Graduate School of Education\u2019s senior vice provost for faculty.<\/p>\n McGrath explained that he is \u201cexcited about the next few years\u201d because the award will enable him \u201cto work with other people who are passionate about making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n He advised his peers who are interested in public service to \u201cbe very comfortable doing things that aren\u2019t typical of an average Penn student.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt might seem kind of weird or untraditional at first, but I think if you really trust the process and you do something that you genuinely really enjoy, you\u2019ll get results,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n He was one of three Penn students in the 198 scholarship finalists nationwide \u2014 alongside College juniors Shivaek Venkateswaran and Veronica Baladi. McGrath, Penn\u2019s 33rd Truman scholar, joins the University\u2019s most recent honorees \u2014 2025 College and Wharton graduates Aravind Krishnan and Tej Patel \u2014 who received<\/a> the award in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College junior Zach McGrath received the 2026 Harry S. Truman Scholarship for his commitment to public service on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-176976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}