The award, valued at $30,000, is given to just 62 U.S. college juniors annually and is the premier graduate scholarship for aspiring public service leaders in the United States. Winners were announced April 12.

Nicodemus, originally from the small rural western Kentucky city of Hartford, is a chemical engineering major in the who is minoring in chemistry. His undergraduate research at UofL and with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. 

Hoping to bridge the gap between technological advancements and social policy, upon graduation he plans to pursue doctoral studies in chemical engineering and continue his career as a researcher with the DOE. He hopes to transition into policy work as a subject matter expert in his field with an eye toward enabling scientific discoveries to directly serve public needs.

Nicodemus was also one of two UofL students to be awarded a 2023 , which recognizes U.S. sophomores and juniors pursuing research careers in math, science and engineering.

“I am thrilled with the opportunity to represent the University of Louisville and my home state of Kentucky in both of these prestigious organizations,” he said. “It is one thing to be recognized for my accomplishments and potential as a scientist and as a public servant, respectively, but to be able to combine these two passions of mine in such elite venues as the Truman and Goldwater foundations is a dream come true; just the next step in a lifelong journey of service as a scientist.”

Among his many projects at Speed, he worked on the Team Desert Phoenix solar house in 2021 and was part of the 2020 to improve a device commonly used to treat COVID-19 and other patients with respiratory problems.

There were more than 700 applicants for this year’s Truman Scholarship from 275 colleges and universities. This year’s awardees join a community of 3,504 Truman Scholars named since the first awards in 1977. Including Nicodemus, 15 UofL students have been Truman awardees; the last UofL student to win the scholarship was in 2021. 

Nicodemus also is one of UofL’s two 2023 Goldwater Scholars. Read more.

“I can’t thank them enough,” Eisenback said. The scholarship is named for the late executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association and “recognizes and supports the efforts of people who are passionate about and dedicated to improving the lives of workers – characteristics that were embodied by Weiner in his personal life, his studies and throughout his 25-year career with the Players Association.”

“I admire him because he continued leading the labor movement all the way until the end,” Eisenback said. “That’s how I would like to be. I want to do as much as I can.”

Eisenback credits the mentorship of Professor , an expert in labor and employment law. After telling his wife the news about the scholarship, “Professor Levinson was the next person I wanted to tell,” he said. “She was so excited. I can’t thank her enough. Without her, I don’t think I’d be getting the opportunities I’ve gotten.”

In the summer of 2018, Eisenback was , a national organization dedicated to educating law students about workplace justice. He worked with the Industrial Division of the Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) in Dayton, Ohio.

This summer, he is heading to Washington, DC, where he will intern in the National Labor Relations Board’s Contempt, Compliance and Special Litigation Branch.

Eisenback says his eventual goal is to be a general counsel for a union or another top leadership position.

“I just want to help workers,” he said. “There’s no doubt that I’m going to be a labor attorney. I like the uphill battle.”

James May is the university’s first , an award given to just 12 Americans each year for postgraduate study in Ireland that includes tuition, accommodations, travel expenses and a stipend. Awardees are selected based on scholarship, leadership and community service. He will use the scholarship to study new music production and performance at Ireland’s University College, Cork.

May has created more than a dozen original compositions that have been performed by students and ensembles around the country including the San Francisco Choral Artists, Beo String Quartet and LONGLEASH piano trio. He has served as a peer mentor, volunteer program coordinator and student speech coach while an undergraduate student and currently teaches contemporary music at Louisville’s Youth Performing Arts School.

“James is a perfect fit for this award,” said School of Music Dean Chris Doane. “His work as a composer, volunteer, teacher and leader is inspiring to all of us and I have no doubt that he will use this scholarship as a springboard to continue these good works on an international level.”

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May came to UofL on the after graduating from The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, with degrees in music composition and English.

“UofL is an incredible place for composers, so when I was applying to graduate school it was one of the first suggestions from my private instructor,” May said.  “The music department has a strong tradition of promoting contemporary music, most obviously through the Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition, and so has an unbelievable amount of resources and opportunities for us. I’ve had so much support from the school for getting my works performed and participating in events around the country. The department also provides generous financial support for its composers, which I think is just a further testament to how invested they are in contemporary music.”

Dr. Patricia Condon, who heads the university’s Office of National and International Scholarship Opportunities, said she “had no doubt” that May would earn the scholarship. 

“Rarely, in 15 years at the University of Louisville working with fellowship candidates from across the university, have we ever presented an applicant better matched to the ideals of the scholarship the candidate is applying for. The minute we saw the opening of May’s personal statement for his Fulbright application, which stated ‘I decided to study classical music because of punk rock,’ we knew we were working with a candidate of exceptional creativity and humor.”

May said he decided to pursue the Mitchell scholarship for a number of reasons.

“My grandparents were from Ireland and I’m very invested in Irish culture and history, so I was excited that such a prestigious award existed to fund study there. I’ve also had a long-standing interest in music in Ireland, both traditional music and other genres, and the prospect of being part of that community was very exciting,” he said.

May expects to begin his study in Ireland next fall after his spring graduation from UofL.

Jeanelle Sears, Emily Cousins and Jon Phoenix, UofL graduate students, are heading to Kolkata, India, this summer as , a prominent award funded by the U.S. State Department to expand the number of Americans proficient in languages deemed to be “critical” to U.S. interest.

How did that happen? Did they already know each other? Did a faculty member encourage the students to apply for the scholarship? Do any of the students already speak Bangla?

No, no and no.

When asked how it happened that three UofL students were selected for the Bangla language program in Kolkata, CLS Indic Language Programs Officer Rhea Vance-Cheng said, “I had the exact same question. It’s definitely rare to have three students from one university at the same site.”

Sears, Cousins and Phoenix say they are just as befuddled. Phoenix speculated that the anomaly was a “super-insane coincidence,” while Sears thought having multiple Cards in the Kolkata program was “wild.”

The trio does share some similarities: all are interested in learning Bengali to expand their opportunities for research in areas such as sociology, environmentalism and writing studies. Sears and Phoenix are both sociologists from Knox County, Kentucky, while Cousins is an English studies student from Tokyo, Japan.

Once the CLS winners got over the surprise of learning that others from UofL were headed to India as part of the same program, they were all delighted.

“It’s very cool that I’ll actually be able to stay in touch with at least two other people in the program,” Phoenix said.

Sears added that having other Cards in the program offers “immediate affinity,” as well as the chance to support each other’s work once they return home.

Scholars will stay with host families in Kolkata and speak only Bengali for the duration of their stay (absolute beginners get a two-week grace period to get their skills up to snuff). The program includes daily instructional classes, extracurricular culture classes, weekly personal tutoring and occasional group excursions.