Grandmother’s Fight Against Cancer Inspires UA’s Truman Scholar, Crane Hill Senior One of 65 in Nation

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Adam Harbison’s grandmother is a cancer survivor, and her battle has been one of the more dominant influences in his life. He first participated in the Relay for Life sponsored by the American Cancer Society when he was 10 to raise money to fight cancer, and he notes his chairmanship on the National Leadership Team for the American Cancer Society’s Colleges Against Cancer as one of his most significant accomplishments. He can now add another accomplishment.

“I guess being named a Truman Scholar is pretty significant,” he said. Indeed, it is. The junior at the University of Alabama is the only Truman Scholar this year from Alabama and one of only 65 nationally.

The Truman Scholarship, sponsored by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, provides up to $30,000 annually in funding to students pursuing graduate degrees in public service fields. Students must be college juniors at the time of selection. Harbison began the selection process in the fall, and the announcement was issued in March. He is a senior majoring in health care management (4.0 GPA) and is earning a minor in political science (3.983 GPA.)

Scholars are required to work in public service for three of the seven years following completion of a Foundation funded graduate degree program as a condition of receiving Truman funds. That should be no problem for Harbison.

“I hope to be working in Washington, D.C. with a non-profit or government health care organization,” Harbison said. “I love the D.C. area.”

Health care runs in the Harbison family. His mother is a nurse. “Health care is something I have always been around, and I thought about going into the medical field, but I decided that I could have the biggest impact on the administrative and policy side,” he said.

His home in Crane Hill is located near Smith Lake in Cullman County, which explains Harbison’s fondness for the water – boating and swimming. His family operates a cattle and poultry farm, and his father also sells real estate.

Harbison has a number of interests, including cooking and reading American authors. “Both my parents like to cook,” he said. His specialty? “Shrimp and grits.”

He lists Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner as among his favorite writers. “But I read business books as well,” he said, noting Thomas Freidman’s “The World is Flat” as a recently-read book.

Harbison works as an undergraduate student assistant in the Manderson Graduate School of Business, and he served as a student ambassador for the Culverhouse College of Commerce Capstone Business Academy, where he chaperoned high school seniors participating in the summer business and recruitment program.

He served as an intern with Alabama State Treasurer Kay Ivey in 2005 and got a taste of public service, including acting as liaison to the Alabama Black Belt Action Commission health committee.

He is enrolled in the Advanced Business Honors Program this year, and he is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honorary. At Honors Day, he was tapped into all four senior honoraries including the Anderson Society, Mortar Board, Blue Key and ODK.

He is a Blackburn Institute Student Fellow, an Honors College ambassador, and serves as chapter Treasurer for Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity.

He said the education he has received at The University of Alabama and at the Culverhouse College of Commerce has been top-notch.

“The University and the College has prepared me not only academically, but for real life situations,” he said. He said Dr. Grant Savage, head of the health care management program, and Dr. Marilyn Whitman, adjunct professor in health care management and coordinator of the internship program, were particularly helpful in applying for the Truman award.

“When I first met Adam, I was impressed by his passion to do the right thing for others, and his determination to make good things happen for the American Cancer Society,” Savage said. “In the classroom, I was further impressed by his intellect, integrity and scholarship. We are fortunate to have Adam represent the University and the state of Alabama as a Truman Scholar.”