MSU's Tolman vaults from Otto to global service to win competitive Truman Scholarship

BOZEMAN – A Montana State University student who dreams of impacting health inequities in small towns like her hometown in Wyoming as well as in small communities across the globe has won a highly coveted 2019 Truman Scholarship.

Zariah Tolman, a junior from Otto, Wyoming, double majoring in cell biology and neuroscience and biochemistry, has won the prestigious scholarship given to juniors who have demonstrated leadership potential and commitment to public service.

Tolman learned that she had won the scholarship this week when MSU President Waded Cruzado surprised her with flowers and news of her selection during Tolman's human movement class. A pole vaulter who formerly competed for the MSU Bobcat track team, Tolman literally leapt for joy when she learn she'd received the scholarship given to 62 students from 58 institutions across the nation. Created by Congress in 1975 to be the nation's living memorial to President Harry S. Truman, the scholarship's mission is to identify and support the next generation of public service leaders. The Truman scholarship has become one of the most prestigious national scholarships in the United States.

"The Truman will give me a great stepping stone to get into graduate school and help me establish a network of people who are also dedicated to changing the world," Tolman said.

Tolman, who is also minoring in global health and biomedical engineering and is a member of MSU's Honors College, plans to attend medical school while concurrently earning a doctorate in global health.

The daughter of Penny Tolman and Rodney Tolman, a middle school teacher/track coach and a nurse, respectively, Tolman has deep roots in the isolated Big Horn Basin farming community that has a population that varies between 35 and 50 people. A track athlete who won five Wyoming championships in hurdles and pole vaulting, she said she was in middle school when she became fascinated with pole vaulting, mostly because it was so difficult. She persevered to learn the sport, becoming a two-time state champion in the event while a student at Burlington High School, despite a motorcycle accident on a rural road when she was 17 that threatened her ability to run, much less vault.

Following the accident, Tolman was life-flighted to Billings' St. Vincent Hospital, giving her a firsthand understanding of the need for emergency medical services in remote communities. The skill of her doctors and the quality of her care at St. Vincent fueled her interest in pursuing a career in trauma surgery.

Tolman not only competed in track six months after her accident, she also won another state championship, which led her to enroll at MSU, where she could continue competing in pole vaulting.

Tolman said that her world expanded after coming to MSU, exposing her to a variety of activities and courses of study that appealed to her interests. Since coming to MSU she has been involved in a Montana INBRE research project with professor Frances Lefcort studying familial dysautonomia in mice. She is an involved member of Expanding Your Horizons, presenting sessions about finding one's passion as well as overcoming adversity. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Cameron Presidential Scholar. She was an MSU SmartyCats tutor in chemistry, French and biology and started her own nonprofit, Positively Projects, an app and website that promote positivity, particularly for those living in rural communities. She also works as a mentor for young women with depression.

Internationally, Tolman has worked in Morocco with the Atlas Cultural Foundation teaching French to children and last summer was a medical volunteer with LOVE Volunteers and It Takes a Village in Uganda. While in high school, she also won the Distinguished Young Woman of Wyoming award and was valedictorian of her class.

Tolman said her future plan is to use her medical degree to provide essential health care to small towns in either Montana or Wyoming and her doctorate in global health to work with communities across the world in policy and research.

Tolman said believes she has had to fight a stigma from coming from a small town her entire life. But that upbringing is now her advantage.

"With adversity comes strength," she said. "I truly believe that."

Ilse-Mari Lee, dean of MSU's Honors College, calls Tolman one of the most courageous, brilliant and resilient students she has worked with.

"She represents the very best of her generation will represent the living legacy of President Truman in the most exemplary manner," Lee said.

Tolman will receive her award in a ceremony at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, in May.

Tolman joins a list of seven MSU Truman winners that include: Connor Hoffman of Boise and Haley Cox of Bozeman who received the award in 2018; Levi Birky, the former student body president who won the Truman in 2016; Alexander Paterson, an economics major from Salt Lake City who now works for the Truman Foundation, and Cara Thuringer from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, received the award in 2015; and in 2003 Kathryn Conner Bennett from Great Falls received the award.