June 9, 2004
By Gilbert Cruz
Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA | The best preparation Joe Halli had for his Truman Scholarship application was growing up left of center in Tuscaloosa.
“Being a professed liberal and always having to defend your position definitely prepared me for the process," he said.
It especially helped him for the final interview -- him on one side of the table, five intellectuals on the other. Lots of fast questions.
“It’s sort of a harrowing process, just a blitzkrieg of questions. Not very friendly at all, actually."
Halli, 21, is one of this year’s 77 Truman Scholars. A local graduate of Central High and soon-to-be-senior at Boston College, Halli joins a very select group of students across the nation.
The scholarship, funded through a foundation, awards college juniors with exceptional leadership skills and devotion to public service with money for two years of graduate study.
And if there is one thing Halli is devoted to in life, other than Little League baseball, it’s service. Virtually apolitical before high school, Halli said that helping others fits in with his definition of liberal.
“To me, it means sticking up for people who are marginalized in our community."
There are certain issues he is passionate about -- the death penalty, tax reform, the homeless and the prison system.
Those last two have occupied much of his time at Boston College. For his first two years, Halli worked at a small soup kitchen in inner city Boston,/sgetting up at 6 in the morning to/sserve and eat breakfast with homeless men.
Halli soon began to think about the connection between homelessness and prison, how many of the men had spent some time behind bars and how society ostracized them.
“If you go to prison, when you come out, there are so many jobs automatically closed off to you -- even being a barber sometimes, which would never pop to someone’s mind."
Halli organized a group of students who regularly went to Suffolk County House of Corrections to teach GED classes to inmates.
He has been involved with the Presidential Scholars Program since his freshman year, said Jennie Thomas, assistant director of the program. In that time Halli has more than fulfilled the group’s mission.
“Our goal is to help students become leaders with a conscience," Thomas said. “And Joe is someone that people look to. He’s always willing to help out and lend a hand."
An English major, Halli also has a minor in faith, peace and justice studies from the Jesuit school.
It’s this strong Catholic faith, the type, Halli said, that focuses less on strict dogmatic teaching than on the concept of Jesus’ association with the poor, that has propelled him to immerse himself in social justice issues. This summer, he will live in Boston and work for a law firm that represents prisoners who claim to have been abused by guards.
Halli’s father, Robert Halli, is the dean of the University of Alabama’s new Honors College. Growing up in the Halli household, full of English majors and Boston College alumni, has certainly helped young Halli figure out where he wanted his career to go.
“I grew up in a very literary household," he said. “There were always books around and my family, especially my mother, has always been into service.
“At some point, it just clicked in that helping others was going to be
a lifelong process for me."