By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–Adelia Purcell turned to human rights in Staples High School, where she co-founded the feminist club and helped lobby for menstrual products to be offered free of cost, or stigma, in the school’s restrooms.

Now pursuing her passion for advocating human rights, she has won a Truman Scholarship, given to 55 students across the country who are planning careers in public service.

Purcell won the $30,000 award by developing a plan to help prevent sexual assault in conflict-torn regions around the world.

“To be able to put that kind of advocacy at (the) national forefront is very exciting for me,” said Purcell, now a junior at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She spoke on a Zoom call from Valencia, Spain, where she is studying for the semester and serving as a teaching assistant in a local primary school.

In bestowing the awards, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation looks for scholars who “demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence,” according to the press release announcing the winners.

“Resourceful, patriotic leaders, today’s Truman Scholars would make President Truman proud,” Dr. Terry Babcock-Lumish, the foundation’s executive secretary, said in the release. “Rising to meet their moments in this century as he did his in the 20th century, they are dedicated public servants who do not shy from challenge.”  

Purcell’s passion for human rights was sparked at Staples, where she was a member of the class of 2023. She was instrumental in the successful push to provide menstrual products free at the high school – a proposal was named a winner of the statewide Voice4Change program.

At William & Mary, Purcell serves as an advocate at The Haven, a support center for those impacted by gender-based violence.

“It can be difficult work, but it is so rewarding,” she said. She also is involved in a peer-based group at the college, Someone You Know, which aims to prevent sexual violence on campus with advocacy and education.

The activities helped inspire her proposal for the Truman Scholarship. While she knew of many organizations that respond to areas during or after conflicts to help victims of sexual assault, “there’s never really been much effort to prevent it in the first place,” she said. “So I just (made) a proposal on how we could use American foreign assistance dollars to try to prevent that.”

She began her application for the scholarship in October. When she learned she was a finalist in February, she had to fly back from Valencia to be interviewed by a regional panel in Boston.

When facing the Truman Scholarship interviewers, the most challenging aspect of her project was to propose a way to obtain funding at a time when many foreign assistance awards have been stopped.

“That was going to be the hardest sell: How on earth could you get the political will to put this through with … the state of foreign aid right now?” she said. Her argument, however, was that the United States still devotes foreign aid to responses to crises, and funds would be spent more efficiently on prevention than reaction.

With this year’s 55 awardees, more than 3,600 Truman Scholars have been named since the first awards in 1977. Prominent Truman Scholars in government service include U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Delaware) and Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) and former White House National Security Advisors Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan, the foundation said. 

Purcell hopes to see other Staples graduates winning Truman Scholarships in the future.

“I wish that more people knew about this opportunity because I know so many Staples graduates who are going to be amazing public servants,” she said. “(There are) so many Staples kids who should be thinking about this.”

Ken Valenti

^{_{A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.}}