Tougaloo, MS- Jarvis McInnis, a junior English major at Tougaloo College has been selected as the first Harry S. Truman Scholar in the college's history. A native of Gulfport, McInnis aspires to become a college professor and a U.S. Senator. While a student at Tougaloo College, McInnis has received other national awards, including the 2006 Boys & Girls Clubs of America Youth of the Year. As Youth of the Year, McInnis raised $25,000 to aid in the rebuilding of local clubs affected by Hurricane Katrina. McInnis is a UNCF-Mellon Fellow and the recipient of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship Award.

The Harry S. Truman Foundation selected 65 scholars out of 595 candidates from 55 U.S. Colleges and Universities to receive scholarships. The seventeen independent selection panels typically include a university president, a federal judge, a distinguished public servant and a past Truman Scholarship winner.

The Truman Scholarship Foundation seeks to find and recognize college juniors with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in the area of public service, and to provide them with financial support for graduate study, leadership training, and fellowship with other students who are committed to making a difference through public service. Scholarship awardees are provided with up to $30,000 in financial assistance while pursuing graduate degrees in the fields of public service.

Founded in 1869, Tougaloo College is a private, historically black, coeducational four-year liberal arts institution, located on the northern edge of Jackson, Mississippi. Known nationally as "The Cradle of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi," the College is led by its first female and 13th president, Dr. Beverly Wade Hogan. Dr. Hogan is a 1973 graduate of the College and a native Mississippian. Under her visionary leadership, the College has increased its enrollment by 12% and boasts a student retention rate of 68%.

Tougaloo College ranks among the top 50 U.S. institutions whose graduates earn PHDs in science and engineering disciplines and among the top 15 historically black colleges and universities in the graduation of females with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences. The College has produced more graduates who have completed their PhD degrees through the UNCF-Mellon Doctoral Fellowship Program than any other institution in the nation.

Listed as one of the Best Colleges in the Southeast by The Princeton Review (2007 and 2008 editions), the highest ranking Mississippi HBCU on U.S. News and World Report's list of "America's Best Black College" (2008) and the only Mississippi institution ranked among the top 20 liberal arts institutions in the nation by Washington Monthly (2007), 66% of its graduates enter professional and graduate schools immediately after graduation. Tougaloo College is the leading producer of African American health professionals, including over 40% of the physicians and dentists, practicing in the state of Mississippi. Among its graduates are more than one-third of the state's African American attorneys and educators including teachers, principals, school superintendents, college/university faculty and administrators.