From the Duke News Service

March 23, 2001

Two Duke juniors have been selected as national winners of the Truman Scholarship, which recognizes academic accomplishments, leadership potential and commitment to a career in public service.

Erin H. Abrams of Northbrook, Ill., and Christine M. Varnado of Hattiesburg, Miss., were notified of their award Wednesday by Duke University President Nannerl O. Keohane. Between 75 to 80 Truman Scholarships will be offered this year.

"We're very proud of your accomplishments," Keohane told Abrams and Varnado at the ceremony in Keohane's office. "This is not just another milestone in your already impressive career, but we think a launching pad for great things to come."

The Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation awards scholarships of $3,000 for senior-year study and up to $27,000 for graduate or professional student to students who plan to pursue careers in government or public service. In addition, Truman scholars receive leadership development training and internship opportunities in the federal government.

To date, Duke students have received 33 Truman scholarships since the program was initiated in 1977.

Abrams is a political science and comparative area studies major and plans a career as an international human rights lawyer. After graduating from Duke. she intends to work for a humanitarian organization in Asia or Africa before entering a professional program that would allow her to get a joint degree in law and international relations.

Abrams has worked extensively in community service as a Duke student and was one of the winners of the 2000 Lars Lyon Volunteer Service Award, sponsored by the Community Service Center to recognize student service. Her wide-ranging service activities have included work with the Refuge Youth Mentoring Program sponsored by Lutheran Family Services and establishing a pilot domestic violence prevention program at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. She also has coordinated the Women's Center Safehaven Program and held summer internships with the U.S. State Department Global Affairs Bureau and the International Human Rights Law Institute.

An Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar, Varnado is an English major. Her career goals are to work on pressing social problems, looking for solutions through education, she said. After graduation, she first intends to work abroad with the Peace Corps or domestically teaching English to under-served communities. Ultimately, she plans to enter an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in literature and gender studies.

At Duke, Varnado has worked as editor of VOICES magazine, a publication on gender and women's issues, as upperclass outreach coordinator at the Community Service Center and as a tutor for children at the Community Shelter for Hope and at the Genesis House.

In 1999, she had a summer internship working with international refugee adolescent girls.

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