Andrew Lee '07 has been named a Truman Scholar, one of 75 scholars selected this year from 598 candidates nominated by 311 U.S. colleges and universities. The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, established by Congress in 1975, provides $30,000 awards for graduate school scholarships to help prepare students for careers in government and public service.
Lee, a double major in government and Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, had just moved to Stark Hall as a resident assistant when he was notified. "It was such a big honor," he says, laughing. "I yelled a whoo-hooo!' and ran around the dorm, but no one else was there."
As the son of Chinese immigrants, he says the timing of his win comes at an "interesting" juncture in politics, as the United States examines its immigration policies. "Who would have thought that an immigrant's son, all the way from Colorado, would receive this honor?"
John Pitney Jr., the Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics, says he has met few students who match Lee's combination of drive, intelligence, and concern for public policy. On campus, Lee has developed an exhaustive academic resume that includes current roles as resident assistant, member of The Claremont Colleges Debate Union, and student manager and research assistant at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, where his focus has been on survey research, regulatory analysis, and water policy. Last year, as a participant in the Washington Program, Lee worked for an environmental lobbying firm and spent his summer in the Natural Resources and Environment Division of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In 2004, he was the recipient of the College's CMC Political Education Fellowship, which allowed him to work on the research staff of Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar.
True to fashion, Lee spent his spring break on a formidable schedule, attending the CMC Board of Trustees retreat, taking part in RA training, then flying to New Orleans where he met Al Gorefor follow-up as a Campus Ecology Fellow for the National Wildlife Federation. Being a conversationist, Lee also won the 2006 Morris K. Udall Scholarship, one of 80 scholars selected from among 445 candidates nominated by 224 colleges and universities. (The award totals up to $5,000 for demonstrated commitment to careers related to the environment.)
After spending the night in a Louisiana airport, Lee then flew to Denver for his Truman Scholarship interview.
The CMCer had prepared for a rigorous examination in his home state by holding mock interviews with Ward Elliott, the Burnet C. Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions, assistant professor of government Kenneth Miller, Professor Pitney, and CMC's 2005 Truman Scholar Nic Heidorn '06. Lee also monitored the news meticulously, reading three newspapers daily. Unnexpectedly, however, the actual interview went unnervingly well, he says. "In fact, it was a surprise that I won because I didn't think it was my strongest interview, and I knew that some Truman interviews could be very grueling."
Lee suspects his thrifty habits may have impressed panelists. In the personal information portion of his application process, he revealed an affinity for Costco ("the mecca of bulk purchasing") where he did his shopping while in D.C., packing items like milk and oranges into a travel suitcase, then taking the subway back to his apartment. "Sometimes a passenger would tap my shoulder and say, Sir, your suitcase is leaking Is that milk?'"
Lee, who's also been known to wash and reuse dental floss, hoped to make the point that, as the son of immigrants for whom "thrift was a way of life," he wasn't afraid of potential embarrassment over pinching pennies. "Cutting back on luxuries helps me focus on things that are important to me, enabling me to give more," Lee says.
Professor Pitney says that while enrolled in the Washington Program, Lee performed impressive research on a presidential tool for influencing Congress: the Statement of Administration Policy (SAP). "In its rigor and originality," Pitney recalls, "it was more like a paper in a Ph.D. seminar than an undergraduate effort."
He refers to Lee as "someone who knows the details of issues such as conservation, as well as ways of organizing a solution. He has a sharp mind, wide-ranging interests, and a championship-class work ethic."
Additionally, says Katie Purvis-Roberts, assistant professor of chemistry in the Joint Science department, "His past public service in the environmental arena and his future goal of becoming a leader in water conservation in the West also made him an ideal candidate for the Udall Scholarship."
As a Truman scholar, Lee receives priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.
Lee says he will likely pursue law school particularly Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, because if its focus on Western water and environmental law. Longer-term interests are to serve the people of Colorado, ideally as attorney general. "I care a lot about state and local government."