Former Smiley grad overcomes obstacles to become Truman Scholar

Devon Wade has been named a Harry Truman Scholar.


A young man from Northeast Houston, who knows the struggles of children who have both parents incarcerated, has been named a recipient of a prestigious award presented nationally.

Smiley High alumnus Devon Wade, is one of 60 winners of the nationally competitive Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

Wade is also the first African-American student to win the award.

The Truman Scholarship seeks to identify future leaders in public service, and provides funding for three years of graduate study in a field of the recipients’ choosing. In return, Truman Scholars must agree to work in a public service field for 3 of 7 years following completion of their degree.

Only two other LSU were among the finalists.

The other finalists are Reggie Galjour, Joel Raborn Wade majors in Sociology, with concentrations in Criminology and African & African-American Studies. He serves as a veteran representative and mentor for the organization No More Victims, Inc. (NMVI), which aids children of incarcerated parents.

Wade hopes to use his personal and academic experiences to expand public awareness of the struggles of these children, and further sociological understanding of the cycle that often leads these children to follow their parents into incarceration.

This year, 176 finalists from 122 colleges and universities were chosen from a pool of 576 applicants. Wade, Galjour, and Raborn are the only finalists selected from the state of Louisiana.

Wade continues what has become a remarkable tradition – the LSU Honors College has produced a Truman Scholar for five of the past seven years. The Honors College Office of Fellowship Advising was created to assist students in applying for prestigious post-graduate scholarships and fellowships, such as the Truman, Rhodes, Marshall, Gates, Mitchell, Soros and Goldwater awards.