Eli Glickman (‘25, Political Science) has been selected to receive the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which provides $30,000 to juniors planning to attend graduate school in preparation for careers in public service. Recipients are selected for their strong academic performance, leadership ability, community service, and potential for influencing public policies.
Public service has been a cornerstone of Eli’s upbringing. His paternal grandfather graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Navy during the Korean War. His maternal grandfather spent years consulting at Los Alamos National Laboratory working on weapons programs critical to national defense. In Eli’s words, “the intersection of my grandfathers’ service experiences, the military, and science, has become a powerful driver of my intellectual interest in nuclear weapons and emerging technologies and my commitment to serving the country.”
Eli, who is minoring in Public Policy and has a 3.9 GPA, is particularly interested in identifying a sustainable way to maintain deterrence capabilities and recapitalize existing nuclear industrial infrastructure. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in security studies and then enter a career track toward senior leadership in the Department of Defense, working with officials from across the Departments of Defense and Energy to revitalize the nuclear enterprise and reform the modernization and planning processes.
Eli attributes his interdisciplinary perspective on national security to the intellectual and social climate of UC Berkeley, where “so much game-changing research is happening in so many fields at the same time.” He feels strongly that a lack of dialogue and understanding between policymakers and STEM experts is a significant barrier to progress in issues of national security and is grateful to have had the opportunity at Cal to learn how to talk with and learn from people he disagrees with, “leaving partisan nastiness at the door.”
Eager to expand opportunities for students to engage with national security and foreign policy issues, Eli co-founded and leads the Alexander Hamilton Society at Berkeley and established the General James Doolittle Strategic Studies Fellowship to create a forum for the ROTC and civilian communities to study strategy jointly on campus. He attributes the success of these efforts to the determination of his team of fellow students to see ideas through to fruition. Demonstrating their commitment and reliability gave others – like Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies – the confidence to provide institutional and tangible support to the AHS.
Receiving the Truman Scholarship is not the first time Eli’s achievements and skills have been recognized. He was a 2023 Hertog War Studies Scholar at the Institute for the Study of War, an intern for U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, a National Defense Fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute, and has held research positions at the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab and the American Enterprise Institute. Eli is also an Assistant Debate Coach at the College Preparatory School and an Eagle Scout. He is originally from Bethesda, Maryland.
Eli is looking forward to becoming part of the Truman Scholars community, particularly the opportunity he will have to network with high-achieving people who are interested in public service more generally, not just national security. He recommends that aspiring applicants to the Truman Scholarship think about their career trajectory and education strategically, to present “a plausible vector.” While the career plans college juniors lay out in the application are aspirational and noncommittal, he says applicants still need to show the selection committee that they are capable of thinking ahead in that way. His view is that the Truman Scholarship Foundation is looking for young people who will actually make a change and know how they want to do it.
After graduating from UC Berkeley in May, Eli will attend the Truman Scholars Leadership Week at William Jewell College in Missouri before starting a summer internship at the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and participating in the Kissinger Summer Academy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
For more information about the Truman Scholarship and other nationally competitive scholarships, please visit the website of UC Berkeley’s National Scholarships & Experiential Fellowships Office.
Click here to read an interview with Eli featured on the L&S website.