Student Life

It Doesn't Seem Like Work - Truman Scholar lives life at breakneck speed.

Maya Babu spent a month this summer in India seeing some sights, catching up with relatives, and even garnering advice on staying active from her 97-yearold grandfather. There was but one pitfall to her journey: she couldn't keep busy enough. "I would have liked to have been working on a laptop, working on grant proposals," says Babu. "It was hard for me to just sit and know I couldn't be doing something."

Truman Scholar Maya Babu plans to pursue both medical and law degrees.

"Doing something" for Babu has meant extensive community work-enough to fill a resume many times over. But it's that commitment to public service, along with her leadership potential and communication skills, that helped earn her a distinguished honor.

Babu was one of 77 students nationally chosen as 2004 Truman Scholars. Each scholar receives $26,000-$2,000 for the student's senior year and $24,000 for graduate study. That's sure to come in handy for Babu, who has ambitious plans beyond her undergraduate years. The dualdegree (neuroscience and psychology) honors student from Eagan plans to pursue both medical and law degrees in preparation for a career in mental health policy.

Much of Babu's passion, as well as her interest in neuroscience, stems from her long-term involvement with America's Promise, the national organization dedicated to supporting youth. She has been a part of two trips to the juvenile detention center in Red Wing, Minn., to promote peacemaking and conflict resolution. It was there she discovered that juvenile offenders "were very similar to me, and that the difference was that something along our paths made us diverge." She also learned that 50 to 75 percent of juvenile offenders suffer from mental illness and half of those also have a substance abuse problem.

Since there is "so much yet to be discovered about the brain," Babu decided to study neuroscience, and she tacked on psychology "because it has more of the social aspect of mental health and substance abuse." Within the field of mental health policy, she plans to focus on youth in corrections and women's mental health.

Babu is now back in her comfort zone of computers, grant proposals, and breakneck pace. Late in the summer, she was teaching debate at a camp at Yale University and finishing the launch of a new scholarly publication called The Bridge.It focuses on "exploring-through case studies, research articles, and reflections-community work, youth work, and community mobilization," she says. And she's on the America's Promise board of directors with the likes of Alma Powell (wife of Colin), Cal Ripken, Jr., Tim Russert, and Jean Case.

How does she keep up? "I don't feel like it's work a lot of the time," Babu says. "I really feel like I'm spoiled. It's fun for me; I get to hang out with some really great people."

-Rick Moore

Editor's note: Maya was recently named one of Glamour Magazine's "Top Ten College Women" of 2004. She and her fellow honorees will be featured in the October, 2004 issue of the magazine.