PHILADELPHIA –- A pair of University of Pennsylvania juniors are among 65 students from 55 U.S. colleges and universities elected as 2008 Truman Scholars by 17 independent selection panels on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of “making a difference.”

Daniel Lee Tavana, a junior from New Jersey, majors in political science and international relations in the College of the School of Arts and Sciences. He has served as the secretary-general of Penn’s Model United Nations Conference, and in 2007 worked for the House Committee on Armed Services, assisting in the authorization of the Defense budget. After graduation, Tavana, who speaks fluent Farsi, plans to continue his career in government, focusing on American foreign policy and national security.

Thomas Hayling Price, a junior from New York, majors in urban studies, also in the College of the School of Arts and Sciences. He mobilized the Penn Student Labor Action Project, a campaign focused on campus security officers. Price spent a semester abroad in Ghana, researching economic development. After graduation, he plans to pursue a law degree and work in public-interest law.

The Truman Scholarship provides as much as $30,000 for graduate study. Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling and special internship opportunities within the federal government.