Source: Mary Hale Tolar, 785-532-6896, mtolar@k-state.edu
Note to editors: Tolar is a graduate of Topeka High School.
News release prepared by: Beth Bohn, 785-532-1544, bbohn@k-state.edu
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
TRUMAN FOUNDATION HONORS K-STATE FACULTY MEMBER AND TRUMAN SCHOLAR
MANHATTAN -- Nearly 20 years after a Harry S. Truman Scholarship changed her life, Kansas State University's Mary Hale Tolar is being recognized by the Truman Foundation for helping other Truman scholars and for living up to the scholarship's ideals.
Tolar, associate director of leadership studies and programs for K-State civic leadership and former director of Kansas Campus Compact, is recipient of the Truman Foundation's 2007 Staats Award. The honor is presented annually to a Truman scholar who has made significant contributions to the public sector and who has provided extraordinary service to the foundation.
Tolar was named a Truman scholar in 1988 as a sophomore in history and speech at K-State. The scholarship is for promising college students preparing for careers in public service.
"Mary's work with student civic engagement and leadership with the Campus Compact has made a difference in the lives of innumerable students," said Fred Slabach, executive secretary of the Truman Foundation. He also said that the award was in recognition of Tolar's commitment to and success in building productive exchanges between scholarship advisers and the foundations that provide opportunities to students through scholarships.
Currently, Tolar serves on national Truman scholarship selection panels and participates annually in Truman Scholars Leadership Week, where she talks with recently selected Truman scholars about opportunities for study and service following their college graduation.
"I am honored and grateful for the recognition of the Staats Award. I believe strongly in the Truman Foundation and the scholarship, the ideals and opportunities the foundation represents," Tolar said. "Receiving the Truman scholarship provided a network of support -- an incredibly generous community of scholars -- that continues to contribute much to my personal and professional life."
It wasn't too long after receiving her own Truman scholarship that Tolar became active with the Truman Foundation. She started as a fellowships adviser 15 years ago. In 1999 she joined the foundation as deputy executive secretary and chief of staff, serving until returning to K-State in 2003.
While at the foundation, Tolar made building relationships with campus scholarship advisers a priority and helped found a national organization in support of scholarship advising in 2000. The National Association of Fellowships Advisors now has almost 300 institutional members and 20 foundation affiliates.
In addition, her work to help organize an international conference in 2002 on strengthening nationally and internationally competitive scholarships resulted in a book that she co-edited, "The Lucky Few and the Worthy Many: Scholarship Competitions and the World's Future Leaders."
Tolar said her work with scholarship advisers was inspired by her experiences at K-State.
"The Truman scholarship application process at K-State was the single most important educational experience of my undergraduate years," she said. "The application requires candidates to reflect on and respond to critical 'big questions.' The process, though, is not one of individual isolation. At K-State, faculty and advisers invest significantly in helping students think about, research, develop and refine our responses and really chart a future for ourselves. It's incredibly humbling for a student at a large public research university to receive that kind of investment.
"Nancy Twiss was my scholarship adviser at K-State and the network of faculty and community members she involved was critical to the success of the process," Tolar said. "K-State also has consistently defined success not in the number of scholarships won -- although we are proud of our record -- but in the educational value that participating in these national competitions holds for our students."
K-State is first in the nation among public universities and sixth overall in producing Truman scholars since the program began in 1977. The university has 30 winners and one alternate in the competition; Tolar was K-State's 13th recipient. She also was selected a Rhodes scholar the year she graduated from K-State, in 1990, which made possible her graduate studies at Oxford.
Through her work with the Truman Foundation and with K-State civic leadership, Tolar continues to encourage students to seek careers in public service.
"Public service is hard work," she said. "It is often three steps forward, two steps back. It takes heart, commitment and energy, but it also requires those who want to make a difference to do the hard work of self-reflection and to take the time to care for relationships with others.
"It's tempting when others say you are good at this or that to take it on without considering if it is really where you want to be. That self-knowledge takes time and attention, and is ongoing," she said. "Also, folks don't accomplish much of anything on their own. So, paying attention to your relationships, making time for friends and family and taking care of yourself are essential to being the change-agents scholars aspire to be."
As for her advice to future Truman scholars, Tolar said, "Have the courage to listen to others; take the risk of exploring options, then take responsibility for making your making your way in this world -- and get on with it."