When Adelina Grace Sudarman found out she was a 2026 Truman Scholar, she thought about her family.
She remembered how hard her parents, immigrants from Indonesia, worked to provide for her education. She thought about her Indonesian-speaking grandma, who Sudarman helped with navigating the American healthcare system. She thought about her dreams to help create more equitable access to healthcare, especially for those who don’t speak English.
“I’m a little bit overcome with how grateful I am,” Sudarman said. “This scholarship really opens a realm of opportunities for me. I’m so thankful for the work my parents have put into my education and the support from my friends, my family and my mentors.”
Sudarman, a junior majoring in neuroscience with minors in Indonesian and global health, is one of 55 Truman Scholars selected across the nation. Each year, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation recognizes students who excel in leadership, civic engagement and academics. Sudarman is the University of Washington’s 21st Truman Scholar since the program began in 1975.
The scholarship includes up to $30,000 in funding for graduate school, leadership training, career counseling, and internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government.
“The University of Washington community is so proud of Grace for this outstanding accomplishment,” said Tricia Serio, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “It is a true testament of her promise and potential as a student and future physician. It is also evidence of what can happen when students are supported by faculty mentors, advisers and friends to discover their purpose.”
Curiosity and community lead to purpose
Sudarman entered the UW as a 16-year-old student in the Robinson Center. Sudarman knew she wanted to pursue healthcare, but she wasn’t sure exactly which direction to go. The Robinson Center faculty always encouraged her to follow her passions and try new things. “I never needed to have it all figured out,” she said.
When she began her undergraduate years, she kept that curiosity as well as the firsthand experience she had watching her community struggle to access medical resources in their language.
While at the UW, Sudarman has worked for University District Street Medicine, where she is currently the development director and helps expand healthcare access for unhoused populations. She is also the president of Phi Delta Epsilon, a medical fraternity that helps create a community for pre-medical students where they can focus on the meaning behind their work and remember why they’re pursuing medicine in the first place.
She also founded UW Plus One, the first student chapter of the Plus One Foundation, a nonprofit organization that brings together a compassionate community to support individuals with brain injuries or neurological disorders. Through this organization, Sudarman and her team built programs like music therapy, art therapy and yoga classes, and learned the importance of community building in recovery.
Sudarman plans to pursue a master’s degree in public policy followed by an M.D. She wants to eventually practice as a physician while also making policy changes to help eliminate structural inequities for non-English-speaking patients. One area she is passionate about is improving language access for federal programs like Medicaid, where millions of users do not have English language proficiency.
Barriers to language access can often cause non-English speakers to delay their healthcare or avoid it altogether, Sudarman said. That only creates worse outcomes for them and further burdens our already strained healthcare system.
As a certified nursing assistant at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Sudarman saw firsthand how non-English speakers often remain silent instead of asking questions or speaking up when necessary.
“To me, a patient who can’t communicate with their doctor isn’t just inconvenienced — they’re receiving a fundamentally different standard of care,” Sudarman said. “That’s not a personal failure. That’s a policy failure.”
As a physician, Sudarman said she wants to focus on making her care as accessible as possible.
“I want to be a physician who sits at a patient’s bedside, who tries to understand what barriers they’re not speaking about,” Sudarman said.
The Truman Scholarship will help her reach those dreams. Receiving this recognition is a signal that other people believe in those dreams, too, Sudarman said.
As she thinks about her next steps, Sudarman also thinks about how much she’s changed since first entering the UW.
She said she spent much of those early years focusing on individual achievement, but over time, she saw how important her community, friends, mentors and faculty were to her success. Sudarman said she never thought she could apply to the Truman Scholarship, but their support gave her that confidence.
When she leaves the University next year, Sudarman knows she will be taking with her much more than just her studies.
“I came in thinking that excellence is your achievements at the UW,” Sudarman said. “But now, what I know is that excellence is showing up for others consistently.”
About the Truman Scholarship
The Truman Scholarship was established by Congress in 1975 to honor President Truman by supporting the next generation of public service leaders through funding and support. There are 3,673 Truman Scholars to date. This year’s cohort was selected from 781 candidates nominated by 305 colleges and universities.
Learn more about scholarship opportunities
The Truman Scholarship application process is supported by the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, an Undergraduate Academic Affairs program. The office works with students, faculty and staff to identify and support undergraduate students and alumni to become strong candidates for scholarships.