Student, alumna receive prestigious awards

By: Lydia Rogers ~Campus News Editor~

Two members of the Xavier community have been awarded prestigious scholarships to further their academic careers.

Current junior and former pres­ident of the Student Government Association Andrew Dziedzic was selected as a 2014 Truman Scholar, and 2010 graduate Ashley Bonnell was awarded a 2014-15 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to Morocco.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation is a living testament to the 33rd President and supports the graduate educa­tion and professional development of outstanding young people com­mitted to public service leadership.

Since its creation in 1975, the Foundation has supported almost 3,000 Truman Scholars who are using their awards to make a dif­ference across the nation and around the globe.

This year, the Foundation re­viewed 655 files from 294 insti­tutions. Fifty-nine students were selected based on their records of leadership, public service and aca­demic achievement.

Dziedzic is from St. Louis and is a double major in economics and Xavier’s Philosophy, Politics and the Public program. After graduation, he intends to pursue a joint Master of Public Policy and Juris Doctor. He is the third Xavier student to be named a Truman Scholar.

He will use his scholarship to study at the London School of Economics next year and partici­pate in an internship in Parliament through the Hansard Scholars Programme.

Drew headshot
Junior Drew Dziedzic (above) and alumna Ashley Bonnell received prestigious scholarships this year.

As is the custom with Truman Scholars, Xavier President Fr. Michael J. Graham, S.J., made a surprise visit to one of Dziedzic’s classes on April 14 to announce the news.

“I am very grateful to the Truman Foundation for this amazing opportunity,” Dziedzic said. “I am excited to join a com­munity of outstanding people who truly act as ‘agents of change’ each day. I also want to thank ev­

Managing Editor Taylor Fulkerson sits down with Josh Wamsley, owner of Mazunte, a lo­cal Mexican restaurant.

eryone at Xavier for the great amount of support. I could have never achieved this without the help from so many people.”

The Fulbright program is the largest U.S. exchange program of­fering opportunities for students and young professionals to under­take international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching and primary and second­ary school teaching worldwide.

Bonnell earned degrees in his­tory and Philosophy, Politics and the Public, and is from Columbus, Ind.

While at Xavier, Bonnell was a Brueggeman Fellow and traveled to Syria and Jordan to study the fate of Iraqi refugees.

Bonnell’s Fulbright scholarship will allow her to leverage the work she has done post-graduation with Arabic-speaking Iraqi refu­gees at the International Rescue Committee in San Diego.