2023 Mitchell Scholars' Summer Gathering |

Mitchell Scholars' Summer Gathering

3 June 2023. The Class of 2024 Mitchell Scholars met in Washington, DC this weekend for an orientation program before they head to the island of Ireland for a year of post-graduate study. Orientation was timed to coincide with NAFSA, a conference that was held in Washington, DC this week that brought many professors and university representatives from Ireland and Northern Ireland to town. On Friday night, the Scholars, alums of the program, and the university representatives gathered for a reception in Arlington, hosted by the US-Ireland Alliance and supported by Ireland’s Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), the Northern Ireland Bureau, and Enterprise Ireland. Many thanks to Eamonn McConville (NIB) and Sara Dart (EI) who were both in attendance. Some others who attended included Jane Holl Lute, former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security; Ambassador Doug Lute, former US, Permanent Representative to NATO; Gare Smith, Founder of Foley Hoag’s Global Business & Human Rights and International Strategies practice; Orla Keane, DCM at the Irish Embassy in Washington, Fig O’Reilly, an entrepreneur in the STEM space; businessman and African American Irish Diaspora Network founder, Dennis Brownlee; and Congressman Sanford Bishop’s Legislative Director, Jonathan Halpern. We are grateful to the universities on the island – great partners of the Mitchell Scholarship program for 25 years now! Mitchell Scholarship Director, Serena Wilson, and US-Ireland Alliance founder, Trina Vargo, spent Saturday morning getting to know the Class of ‘24 and preparing them for an exciting year ahead of them.

(Photos by Carol Clayton)

The Mitchell Scholarship