Originally posted on UGA Today
University of Georgia junior Alex Drahos was one of 60 undergraduates from across the nation to be selected as a 2024 Truman Scholar, a prestigious award given each year to students who demonstrate academic excellence, outstanding leadership potential, and commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector.
Drahos is a Foundation Fellow from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is majoring in international affairs, political science and urban studies through the School of Public and International Affairs and the Morehead Honors College.
Drahos is UGA’s 22nd Truman Scholar since the program began in 1977. The Truman Scholarship provides funding for graduate studies and opportunities for training, internships and fellowships. This year’s Truman Scholars were selected from 709 candidates who were nominated by 285 colleges and universities.
“The University of Georgia is immensely proud of Alex for becoming our institution’s 22nd Truman Scholar,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “His achievement represents the boundless potential of our students to use their UGA education to develop solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.”
After graduating from UGA in 2025, Drahos plans to pursue a master’s degree focusing on urban innovation and the built environment. He wants to use this knowledge to create human-centered cities.
Drahos was a development intern for Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national initiative that supports strategic investments in urban assets to foster social engagement, equity and economic development. He used AI software to summarize 11,000 federal earmarks to inform legislative priorities and analyzed digital data to create marketing strategies.
He was a program manager for the Center for Advancing Innovation, a nonprofit focused on technology transfer and commercialization in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. He helped coordinated a nine-partner, $75 million grant program to launch 75 biotech and AI startups.
“Alex is a dynamic thinker, and we are so proud that he has been named a Truman Scholar,” said Meg Amstutz, dean of the Morehead Honors College. “His investment in public service and in building better futures for communities across our nation is truly inspiring.”
Drahos’ interests at UGA stretch across campus. He is the managing editor of the Georgia Political Review, plays cello in the Chamber Music Society and serves as a team lead in the UGA Student Industry Fellows Program.
He conducts research with Andrew Owsiak, a Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor in international affairs, studying hate crimes in post-conflict societies in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. He received a CURO Research Award to support his research and presented his work at the 2023 CURO Symposium. The study is expected to be published in 2025.
Drahos was named a Sam Nunn Scholar for his work as a Security Leadership Program Fellow in the UGA Center for Trade and International Security. He was executive chair of the UGA Active Learning Ambassadors and a housing affordability analyst through the Arch Policy Institute, a student-run nonpartisan policy think tank.
Drahos is currently studying abroad at Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey.
UGA’s major scholarships office, housed in the Morehead Honors College, works closely with all students across campus as they apply for national, high-level scholarships. For more information, contact Jessica Hunt at [email protected].
Established by Congress in 1975 as the living memorial to President Harry S. Truman and a national monument to public service, the Truman Scholarship supports and inspires the next generation of public service leaders. For more information, visit https://www.truman.gov/.
