Jamestown's Will Nelson named 2026 Truman Scholar

Will Nelson’s selection as a 2026 Truman Scholar put a Jamestown native into one of the country’s most selective public-service honors and gave Stutsman County a rare national headline rooted in local schools, youth leadership and civic work.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation named 55 scholars from 48 colleges and universities for the 2026 class after reviewing 781 applications from 305 institutions and interviewing 198 finalists. The award provides up to $30,000 for graduate study, along with leadership training, career counseling and federal internship and fellowship opportunities. Truman Scholars also must commit to public service jobs for at least three years within five years after finishing their education.

Dartmouth College said Nelson was one of three Dartmouth students selected this year, along with Gracie Bartos ’27 and Jackson DeConcini ’22. Dartmouth said it was the first time the college had produced three Truman winners in a single cycle, underscoring how rare the honor is even at an elite institution with a deep pipeline into public service.

Nelson’s record in Jamestown helps explain why he fit that profile. He graduated with highest honors from Jamestown High School, where he served as student body president, swim team captain, a state speech champion and liaison to the Jamestown Public Schools board. He also served on North Dakota’s Department of Health Youth Advisory Board and the State Superintendent’s Student Cabinet, giving him early exposure to state-level policy discussions that reached well beyond the high school auditorium.

His résumé stretches from Jamestown to Washington, D.C. Nelson represented North Dakota as a U.S. Senate page, a Boys Nation senator and a U.S. Senate Youth Program delegate. At Dartmouth, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy said he double-majors in history and government with a minor in public policy. Dartmouth’s Political Union said he plans to attend law school and work in upper Midwest politics or the judiciary, while another Dartmouth report said he intends to pursue a J.D. with a concentration in antitrust enforcement.

For Jamestown and Stutsman County, Nelson’s Truman Scholar win is more than an academic distinction. It shows how a student shaped by Jamestown High School, local school-board service and North Dakota youth leadership programs can move onto a national stage where the next step is not simply prestige, but a career built around public service, policy and law.