U.Va. gets second Truman Scholar

A second round of selections has netted the University a second Truman Scholarship recipient: third-year student Andy Oldham of Lynchburg.

Oldham, a Jefferson and Echols Scholar, will receive $30,000 to complete his undergraduate education and put toward two to three years of graduate study. He joins Aubrey L. Gilbert of Charleston, S.C., as the University's second 2000 Truman Scholarship winner.

Oldham is enrolled in the government honors program, with a second major in economics. He was a co-founder of One in Four, an all-male sexual assault peer education group; editor of Hoo Knows, a political journal; a resident adviser in Webb House; and a member of the University Guides and the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society.

After spending recent summers on Capitol Hill working for Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., Oldham plans to hold down two Washington jobs this summer, one with the State Department and another with the Brookings Institute, studying antitrust law in telecommunications. After graduation next year, he hopes to use the Truman Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in government and a law degree.

Truman Scholars are selected on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and their likelihood of "making a difference." Congress established the Truman Scholarship Foundation in 1975 to honor the nation's 33rd president.