One of the nation’s most prestigious honors for students committed to public service, the Truman Scholarship recognizes exceptional leadership, academic excellence, and a demonstrated commitment to improving the public good. This year, we are proud to celebrate Faith Austin ’27 as a newly selected Truman Scholar.

Established by Congress in 1975 as a living memorial to President Harry S. Truman, the Truman Scholarship supports college juniors who plan to pursue careers in public service. Scholars are selected through a highly competitive national process that evaluates not only academic achievement, but also leadership, integrity, and a sustained commitment to addressing critical societal challenges. Truman Scholars receive funding for graduate study, leadership training, and access to a lifelong network of public service leaders.

What sets the Truman apart is its emphasis on service-driven leadership. Scholars are chosen not simply for what they have accomplished, but for their potential to lead with responsibility, accountability, and a deep commitment to the common good. It is widely regarded as one of the premier fellowships for aspiring public servants in the United States.

For Faith, the recognition reflects both personal commitment and the communities that have shaped her journey.

What does being selected as a Truman Scholar mean to you?

“Being selected as a Truman Scholar is an extraordinary honor, but I receive it knowing this recognition does not belong to me alone. It affirms my commitment to public service, but also the communities that have formed, challenged, corrected, and carried me here. Looking back on the application process, I realized that five generations of Robertson Scholars helped me prepare, from alumni to my summer coach to current scholars. That made Truman feel less like an individual accomplishment and more like a testament to the mentorship, team spirit, and shared investment that have shaped my life.

The Truman Scholarship is meaningful because it recognizes commitments I have pursued since my freshman year of high school: service, civic responsibility, and leadership anchored in something larger than ambition. But it also reflects what happens when a community pours into a person. Robertson, ROTC across Duke and UNC, my global church community, mentors, professors, classmates, and friends have all invested in me, often when I was the most unqualified or unprepared person in the room. I did not arrive here self-made. I arrived because people taught me, challenged me, and saw potential in me before I could always see it myself. Being selected as a Truman Scholar means being entrusted with that investment and carrying it forward through more faithful, serious, and generous public service.”

What do you hope to explore through the Truman experience, and how do you see it shaping your leadership journey?

“Through Truman, I hope to enter another community of young public servants committed to leaving the United States stronger, more unified, and more worthy of its ideals. I see the Truman Scholarship not primarily as a financial award, but as an invitation into a community that understands leadership as responsibility rather than status. That is what I admire about President Truman’s model of public service: moral burden, difficult decisions, plain speech, and accountability for the consequences of public duty.

Robertson has already taught me that leadership is formed in relationship. I have become more of the woman and public servant I hope to be because I have been surrounded by people who think differently from me, challenge me honestly, and call me to act with courage and integrity. I see Truman as an extension of that formation. I am especially eager to learn from Truman Scholars who have served in the military, pursued graduate education, and used their training to bring about meaningful institutional change in one of the world’s most powerful and controversial organizations. I hope Truman expands my imagination for public service while grounding me in a network of people who know that leadership is not simply entering rooms of influence but becoming trustworthy enough to use influence well.”

How has the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program prepared you for this moment?

“The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program has prepared me for this moment in nearly every way. Robertson gave me the rare gift of finding a home in both Chapel Hill and Durham. It gave me the flexibility and security to explore ROTC, first at Duke and then at UNC, and to build a life across institutional, intellectual, and social boundaries. I am proudly based at UNC as a Carolina girl, but I would not be where I am without Duke.

Robertson also gave me a community that asked hard questions at the right moments. In my freshman year, conversations after Dinner for Six left me crying on the steps of Carolina Hall because I felt such intense imposter syndrome. Over time, Robertson did not let me stay trapped there. It gave me people who sat with me in uncertainty, challenged me toward courage, and taught me that leadership is not the absence of insecurity, but the decision to keep showing up with honesty and purpose.

That formation continued through Community Summer in Whitesburg, mentorship from my Summer Coach Matthew King (Robertson ’18), Dinners for Six, Cookies for 10, coaching calls with Vicki, and countless conversations on the Robertson Express. Robertsons from both UNC and Duke even came to my official Oath of Enlistment contracting outside Richard White Lecture Hall last spring. Practically, the Truman process itself was sustained by Robertson: five generations of scholars read essays, conducted mock interviews, offered wisdom, and connected me to resources. I cannot separate this achievement from the Robertson community. It has consistently asked who I am becoming, what I am responsible for, and whether I will use the opportunities I have been given in service of something beyond myself.”

What public service commitments do you hope to carry forward?

“At the highest level, I am committed to stewarding the people, places, and resources I have encountered in a way that honors God and contributes to a stronger, more unified community, state, country, and world. That commitment begins with proximity to institutions as they are, to people shaped by them, and to the hard questions that arise when love of country and honest criticism must coexist.

Professionally, that begins with serving at least four years on active duty in the United States Space Force and investing in the public school system wherever I am stationed by working as a substitute teacher. For all its flaws, I believe the military remains one of the few institutions in American life that brings together people across region, race, religion, class, education, and background in pursuit of a shared mission. I do not romanticize it, but I do believe it can teach habits of duty, sacrifice, discipline, and shared obligation that our public life desperately needs.

My academic interests in history, languages, and international relations have taught me that America’s story, for all its beauty, is not the whole archive of political wisdom. There are lessons about leadership, civil society, reconciliation, resilience, and institutional trust that must be learned from beyond our 250-year national history. I want to study those lessons carefully, not because I love my country less, but because I love it enough to believe it can learn.

In the space domain, my commitment means helping secure American interests while preserving outer space as a peaceful and collaborative domain for humankind. Private companies and military-authorized actors are rapidly shaping the rules of the game in space, and my generation must ask how we govern that domain with wisdom, restraint, and public purpose as it becomes increasingly contested. I hope to help build institutions strong enough to defend the nation, humble enough to reform themselves, and principled enough to serve more than power alone. Truman-style leadership, to me, means accepting responsibility without theatrics, telling the truth plainly, and remembering that public service is not about being admired. It is about being useful, faithful, and willing to carry burdens that belong to more people than oneself.”

Faith is the sixth Robertson to be named a Truman Scholar. Congratulations Faith!