Three Harvard juniors have been named 2004 Truman Scholars, a prestigious honor for college juniors who intend to pursue a career in government or public service.

The winners from Harvard are Zachary D. Liscow ’05, Swati Mylavarapu ’05 and Melissa L. Dell ’05.

Candidates for the scholarship underwent a rigorous five-month-long application process in which they submitted a policy proposal and detailed their career aspirations.

A total of 77 scholars were selected from a national pool of 609 applicants representing 300 colleges and universities nationwide.

This year, each Truman scholar will receive a $2,000 scholarship for their senior year in college, in addition to a $24,000 scholarship for their graduate education.

Winners were selected based on leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of “making a difference,” according to a press release on the Truman Scholarship Foundation’s website.

The foundation is a federal memorial to former U.S. President Harry S Truman.

Liscow, a resident of Dunster House, said he was “really excited and pretty surprised” after finding out about his award via an e-mail from the Office of Career Services.

“I didn’t think I had that great of a chance because the field was very competitive,” Liscow said.

Mylavarapu, who lives in Mather House, attributes her award to the “concise and consistent story” she told about her goal to work in international development and human rights.

“Everyone enters with the same idealism, but what counts is the combination of idealism and a concrete plan for making a difference,” Mylavarapu said.

Dell, a Winthrop House resident, wrote in an e-mail that what helped her application was the “clarity” in her career goals and her “extensive involvement” in public service activities.

“I almost didn’t apply because the application seemed like a lot of work and I thought my chances were really small,” Dell wrote.

Liscow, a joint concentrator in government and environmental science and public policy, is the co-chair of the Harvard Environmental Action Coalition and recently advised University President Lawrence H. Summers on sustainibility principles for the Allston campus.

Liscow hopes to study environmental policy and biodiversity conservation at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, and later work on environmental policy for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s international division.

In his policy proposal for the scholarship, Liscow advocated that President Bush’s Millenium Challenge Account—a foreign aid program—should include environmental policy criteria for recipient nations, in addition to the education and health policy requirements already in place.

Liscow spent the summer following his freshman year in Nicaragua.

“[The experience] entrenched in me the need to balance environment and development, the need to help people who are impoverished, in addition to preserving the environment,” Liscow said.

Mylavarapu is a special concentrator in international development and human rights, and plans to pursue master’s and J.D. degrees in a joint program.

In her policy proposal, Mylavarapu outlined a plan to encourage U.S. pharmaceutical companies to loosen their patent restrictions in areas of the world undergoing health crises.

“I want to eventually end up working in international development policy,” Mylavarapu said. “I want to focus on how the public sector can rope the private sector into taking corporate responsibility.”

Mylavarapu said a trip to Nicaragua—part of a freshman seminar on contemporary Latin America, in which Liscow also participated—was one of the formative experiences in her life’s goals.

“It was really eye-opening to see that all the politics and economics you learn about affect real people in the real world,” she said.

Dell, who is studying abroad in Chile this semester, plans to study the effects of microfinance and legal reforms on traditionally marginalized groups like women and indigenous peoples.

A track and cross country runner, Dell wrote in an e-mail that an experience in Peru taught her that determination and hard work did not always pay off for everyone.

“Seeing people work so hard with so little, at least economically, to show for it, played a big role in giving me confidence in my chosen career path,” she wrote.

All three Harvard Truman scholars are expected to travel to William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. on May 16 to accept their awards in a special ceremony.