President Harry Truman's legacy of public service and leadership has endured through the Truman Scholarship and its many recipients over the decades.
One of this year's 60 Truman Scholars is Daniel Arakawa, a senior at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
The $30,000 scholarship supports public service-oriented students in their future graduate studies. The program tries to award at least one student from each state.
Arakawa, a Kamehameha Schools graduate from Kāneʻohe, is set to get his bachelor's degree in political science and sociology in a few weeks. He plans to apply to law school in the fall.
"The position that I'm looking for outside of law school would be as an assistant U.S. attorney. But one of the places that that career path can lead would be federal judgeship," Arakawa told HPR.
"I think when it comes to reforming the different issues that are present in society, and in the criminal justice system, I think the federal judiciary is one of the best ways to do so," he added.
Arakawa also volunteers as a speech and debate coach for his alma mater. He learned he got the scholarship while preparing his KS Kapālama students for a statewide tournament.
"The Truman Scholar is truly just, it opens a lot of doors, and not necessarily just because of the, you know, the money that the scholarship provides, but definitely the connections and relationships," Arakawa said.
He has also interned with then-Lt. Gov. Josh Green and continued working with Green during his governorship.
The university said Arakawa is the 22nd awardee from a UH campus since the program's inception in 1977 and the first since Jessica Lau earned the award in 2022.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 1, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
