Ben Brysacz

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Two 2005 University High graduates — one at ASU and the other studying at Lewis & Clark — have won Truman Scholarships, the nation's highest undergraduate leadership award.

Devin Mauney and Ben Brysacz are among the 65 Truman Scholars for 2008 who will each receive up to $30,000 for graduate school.

Mauney, a Flinn Scholar and junior studying economics and political science at Arizona State University, plans on getting a law degree and a public policy master's degree at Harvard.

Mauney found out about the award last week, when ASU President Michael Crow and the honors dean came into his economics class to make the announcement.

Mauney, who ran for the TUSD board when he was still in high school, said he wants to start his career working as a policy aide on Capitol Hill, focusing on trade, tariff and tax issues.

Mauney already has experience working with lawmakers to develop policy as a member of the Arizona Students' Association.

"When I was working on ASA, it was the first time I was working on things from the beginning through to the end," he said. "If we wanted to move some policy forward, we had to create the policy from the ground up."

After some time in Washington, D.C., Mauney would like to return to Arizona and might pursue electoral politics, but at the Legislature rather than the school board.

Brysacz, a political-science junior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., said he doesn't have definite plans yet for graduate school but is looking at Georgetown, Harvard and the University of Virginia for law and public policy degrees.

He said he's interested in constitutional law and environmental policy.

"After that, I've thought about working in D.C. for a while and then maybe coming back to Tucson and maybe being a public defender or prosecutor," he said.

Brysacz was in San Diego presenting a paper at a political-science conference when his college's president left a message and broke the news when Brysacz called back.

That night, he went to a Mexican restaurant with his professor with "just a stupid grin on my face" and received a special flan with "happy promotion" written on it.

Brysacz leads outdoor trips for fellow students and is active on Lewis & Clark's student academic affairs board.

He's the deputy state coordinator for Students for Barack Obama in Oregon and last summer interned for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Washington.