The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation has selected Cornell undergraduate Eleanor (Ellie) Emery, A&S '10, as a Truman Scholar.

The selection -- one of 60 from a national pool of 601 candidates nominated by 289 colleges and universities -- is based on her academic record, leadership and public service. The Truman Scholarship provides $30,000 toward graduate study. Emery plans to earn her M.D. and master of public health and then to serve with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

Emery, who is from North Granby, Conn., is a College Scholar majoring in biology. Last semester she studied at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. While there she worked with the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that helps youth address the needs of their communities, and with ConsciousFlowz, an NGO that uses hip-hop music in HIV/AIDS awareness efforts. She also shadowed medical students in Cape Town with a program that runs mobile night clinics. In 2007 she had volunteered at a medical clinic in Ghana.

Emery is director of outreach and advocacy for Cover Africa, a student organization dedicated to the prevention of malaria; a board member and grant writer for the African Flood Relief Campaign at Cornell; and treasurer of UNA-USA Young Professionals for International Cooperation, a student program of the United Nations Association. In 2003-04 she worked for the political action group Moveon.org and from August 2007 to November 2008 volunteered for the Obama for America Campaign.

The campus selection committee consisted of Kate Bronfenbrenner of the ILR School, Human Ecology Dean Alan Mathios and Beth Fiori, Cornell's fellowship coordinator. Emery was selected as a finalist in February. In early March she interviewed in New York City with a Truman Foundation panel composed of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa; John King, the managing director of Uncommon Schools Inc.; Joseph McShane, president of Fordham University; Andrew Rich, president and CEO of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; Jeffrey Toobin, staff writer at The New Yorker and senior analyst at CNN; and Tara Yglesias, deputy executive secretary of the Truman Scholarship Foundation.

The Truman Scholarship Foundation was established by Congress in 1975 as the federal memorial to the 33rd president. The foundation awards scholarships for college students to attend graduate school in preparation for careers in government or elsewhere in public service. The foundation is supported by a U.S. Treasury trust fund. Since the first awards in 1977, 2,670 Truman Scholars have been chosen.