By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times
As far back as captain of the Hoover High School varsity soccer team, honors student Rotimi Kukoyi has been on the run between extracurricular activities and classes. Now that he’s a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill nothing has changed. He’s still winning.
This month, Kukoyi was selected as one of 54 college students named a 2025 Harry S. Truman Scholar, which for almost 50 years has recognized college juniors who demonstrate exceptional leadership potential and commitment to careers in public service.
Recipients receive up to $30,000 for graduate or professional school leadership development activities and join a network of over 3,500 Truman scholars who have gone on to shape public policy, law, healthcare, education and more.
Kukoyi, a health policy and management major in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, said his education in the Birmingham metro area provided him a solid foundation.
“I’m very interested in public health and Birmingham has some of the South’s best public health infrastructure,” Kukoyi told The Birmingham Times. “You have UAB Hospital, I did research with UAB surgery when I was in high school; the public health department in Jefferson County is great and having that proximity to all those resources prepared me in terms of getting guidance from people, getting inspiration and encouragement.”
In 2021 his video was one of four winners of a $250 gift card in the Alabama Department of Public Health‘s “Vaccinate Alabama TikTok Contest.”
The 21-year-old also pointed to the “positive relationships” he developed in the metro area.
“My resume might look like I’m doing these things alone but behind each bullet point, behind every achievement, it’s a village, it’s my family, it’s my friends, it’s my professors, who are opening doors for me,” he said, “ … nothing happens in a silo. It’s all community and really investing in the right relationships and showing gratitude for their investment in you.”
He added that his village also reminds him to “have fun and take care” of himself.
“I took up running this semester,” he said. “I’m running my first marathon in two weeks just outside of D.C. — the Potomac River Run. That’s a great stress reliever. I love going out with my friends on campus. I love to travel, definitely like to explore new parts of the world and lastly I love to watch good television. I’m a big binge watcher of television shows. Currently I’m watching ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘The Pitt.’ Earlier this semester I finished up Severance I watched Abbott Elementary .. lot of great shows.”
As a freshman at Hoover High in November 2018 Kukoyi appeared as a quarterfinalist on the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament television program. As a senior, when the COVID pandemic gripped all corners of the globe, he was accepted to more than 15 universities and received $2 million in scholarship offers.
He narrowed his list down to Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Johns Hopkins and ultimately went with UNC and said the pandemic is what inspired him to study public health “because that was the first time that I really saw how clear the health inequities were,” Kukoyi told ABC news at the time. “African Americans had a much higher chance of dying from COVID than white Americans … it was almost like there were two separate pandemics impacting our nation, and we saw (some people) marginalized and impacted way more.
“I want my legacy to be one that’s focused on impacting other people. I suppose a lot of people in the pursuit of their own goals can kind of forget what it’s all about.”
Kukoyi, is also a past winner of the prestigious Finley award in Hoover, which is given each year to the senior from each Hoover high school and one faculty member from throughout school system who best demonstrates the character of former Berry High School coach Bob Finley, who was known for his outstanding character.
The Finley Award is presented to those who set high standards for themselves, demonstrate an outstanding work ethic, have a humble manner, are honest and set a positive example for their peers. Kukoyi was one of 36 seniors at Hoover High nominated for the Finley Award that year.
He was also a captain on the varsity soccer team, served on the executive council of the Hoover Ambassadors and was a senior representative in the Student Government Association.
