Aminata Ba, a University of Mississippi junior public policy leadership and economics major from Southaven, Miss., has been named as a 2026 Truman Scholarship finalist.
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship awards $30,000 in graduate funding for students looking to pursue a career in public service.
This year, there are 198 finalists from 136 institutions, according to the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation website. Ba is one of two finalists from a Mississippi school, with another finalist attending Mississippi State University. There is also a finalist from the state of Mississippi who attends Princeton University.
Ba said she decided to apply for the scholarship because of how the award aligns with her personal values.
“I really resonate with the Truman Foundation’s emphasis on public service and leadership,” Ba said. “Growing up in the South and living under these ideas of Southern hospitality, and then also the values that my parents instilled in me, of taking care of other people and making sure others are uplifted. It’s been my life trajectory to ensure that others in my community and around the world are taken care of. And so with the Truman Foundation, it would help contribute to my passion and my aspiration to serve in public service in the future.”
Ba’s passion for public service began during her years at DeSoto Central High School, where she became aware of issues surrounding voting engagement.
“In high school, while doing research for Secretary of State Michael Watson’s ‘Promote the Vote’ civic engagement essay competition, I read a 2018 Johns Hopkins University study finding that one-third of respondents could not name their governor, over 80% could not name their state legislator and nearly three-quarters could not name their senator,” Ba said. “Those statistics shocked me — so much so that I wrote them down on my notes app, where they still sit over five years later. I became motivated to use the resources available around me to make a difference and put a dent in those numbers.”
While in high school, Ba began hosting voter registration drives and registered more than 100 students at her first drive. On campus, she has grown this commitment through her involvement with the UM Voting Ambassadors, the UM Center for Community Engagement and the UM Voting Coalition.
“The biggest thing that I’m proud of was the voter-friendly competition, which was a huge competition that involved 7,000 members of Greek life on campus and basically created a competitive, but friendly, point competition to encourage voter engagement,” Ba said.
Ba worked in tandem with the Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA) to put together her application. Assistant Director of ONSA Whitney Dedmon-Woods spoke to Ba’s commitment.
“Ami approached every edit and rewrite of her application with openness and a genuine drive to find the best pathway to become the public servant she wants to be,” Dedmon-Woods said. “It has truly been a joy to see her grow and strengthen her goals through this process. … She is such an incredible student and individual who puts her whole heart and effort into her work.”
Ba also credits her success in part to the influence of past Truman Scholars at the university. UM has had five students win the award in the past four years.
“I’m lucky to have an incredible village of people who are service-oriented and former Truman Scholars that have come from this university,” Ba said. “And so through their support, through their advice and through just the incredible model that they’ve set, I’ve been blessed to be able to follow in their footsteps.”
The 2026 Truman Scholars will be announced on April 24. If named a Truman Scholar, Ba plans on putting the award toward pursuing her juris doctorate, specifically with an eye for her passion for voting rights in the South.
“I’d like to pursue voting rights and civil rights as an emphasis at a law school, and hopefully from there … I’d like to become a civil rights attorney in the South and support voting rights efforts in Mississippi,” Ba said.
Ba said the best advice for students looking to apply to be a Truman Scholar is to not psych yourself out.
“That’s something that I did at the beginning,” Ba said. “But when your heart is in the right place, when you are someone that has dedicated your time to serving others, then it is definitely worth taking a shot. And the process has truly been one that is like that. It puts you in a very reflective state, and really only strengthens your desire to continue to work in public service.”
