The Mitchell Scholarship
Photos from reception: https://bit.ly/2OMXzyl
The US-Ireland Alliance celebrates the 20th anniversary of its George J. Mitchell Scholarship program with the selection of the 12 members of the class of 2020 following interviews held in Washington, D.C. today.
The Scholarship program, which sends future American leaders to the island of Ireland for a year of graduate study, was created by the founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance, Trina Vargo, and is named in honor of Senator George Mitchell’s contributions to the Northern Ireland peace process.
Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States, Daniel Mulhall, hosted a reception for finalists and alumni at his residence on Friday evening. Carolina Chavez, the Director of the Mitchell Scholarship Program, spoke of how the popularity of one of the most prestigious scholarships in the US continues to grow. A record number of 370 people applied for the 12 scholarships -- a nearly 14% increase over the previous year and a 29% increase over 5 years. More than 200 Congressional districts and an equal number of colleges and universities are represented in this year’s applicant pool. Recipients are chosen on the basis of academic distinction, leadership, and service.
Members of the 2020 class include a recent intern for Ambassador Nikki Haley at the US Mission to the UN,who also combats political polarization in the United States; a researcher on the gut microbiome;two theater practitioners; a journalist and researcher, currently working on an upcoming Netflixdocumentary series on the 14th amendment; two reproductive rights advocates; and the co-presidentof Columbia University’s chapter of Lean In, who is interested in the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence.
Candidate interviews were held at the Doyle Collection’s Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C. In addition to Ambassador Mulhall, members of the selection committee included Melissa Boteach, Senior VP of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress and Mitchell Scholar, Class of 2006; George C. Heslin, Founding Artistic Director of the Origin Theatre Company in New York City; Justin McCarthy, Senior Vice President at the Patient & Health Impact group at Pfizer; Dr. Bob Mauro, Executive Director of the Irish Institute and founding Director of the Global Leadership Institute at Boston College; Dr. Marc O Griofa, Chief Medical/Technology Officer at Noninvasive Medical Technologies; and Kathleen Romig, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Mitchell Scholar, Class of 2002.
Sponsors of the Mitchell Scholarship program include Ireland’s Department of Education and Skills,Morgan Stanley, Pfizer, and the American Ireland Fund. The Scholars will begin their studies in Ireland in September 2019.
George J. Mitchell Scholarship, Class of 2020
Minhal Ahmed immigrated to the United States from Pakistan at age four, attending five schools in five years before his parents settled in New York. He became interested in how our bodies and health are impacted both by our genes and our zip codes at a young age. A Bioengineering major at Northeastern University in Boston, Minhal focuses his research on the gut microbiome, the trillions of microorganisms that live in our intestine. In the lab, he studies how the ecosystem in our gut may affect how we think and feel. Outside of the lab, Minhal works with Peer Health Exchange, a national organization that seeks to bring health equity to under-resourced schools by providing health education. After countless hours teaching health classes in Boston high schools, he was recently selected as President of the Northeastern campus chapter, one of the largest in the country. For fun, Minhal DJs at his campus radio station. A Goldwater Scholar, he will study Applied Psychology at University College Cork.
Born and raised Texas, Kathryn Ammon has worked on reproductive rights since her freshman year at the University of Kansas. She has held various leaderships positions at SURGE, the campus feminist and abortion access organization, including serving as its President, where she grew SURGE’s bank account and membership roster. Committed to advocating for marginalized students on campus, Kathryn was elected to the Student Senate, and then nominated to the university-wide governing body, the University Senate, becoming the only woman student senator. In addition to holding various other leadership positions on campus, Kathryn has worked on reproductive justice issues with an indigenous feminist collective in New Mexico and with Planned Parenthood Great Plains, and as a votebuilder with the Kansas Democratic Party. A triple major in History, Political Science and Women’s Studies, Kathryn will study Equality Studies at University College Dublin.
Annabel Barry is an English major at Princeton University. A believer in the political power of literature, she is the co-editor-in-chief for The Nassau Literary Review, Princeton’s oldest undergraduate publication and only traditional literary magazine. She has been awarded several competitive research and travel grants that allowed her to travel to the Northern Ireland border and write a collection of creative non-fiction stories about the border, and to study Ulysses at Oxford. Her pieces have been published in literary magazines and her paper about John Keats has been accepted for publication in the Keats-Shelley Review. Annabel is also a scenic and puppet designer with a passion for sustainable design and community-based theater. On campus, Annabel represents the English Department’s Class of 2019 on the Undergraduate Advisory Committee, is a peer academic advisor to 20 underclassmen, and is a fellow and mentor at the Princeton Writing Center. A Connecticut native, she will study Philosophy and Literature at University College Dublin.
Ella Klahr Bunnell is an American Studies major at Stanford University where she studies issues of justice, equity and conflict. She has interned with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice where she researched voting procedures, and with the ACLU where she conducted research on race and criminal justice. A Boston native, Ella also interned with Congressman Joseph Kennedy and Senator Elizabeth Warren. At Stanford, she has assisted a Stanford professor in her research on civilian oversight of police violence and is currently analyzing criminal disenfranchisement law, with a focus on America's divergence from international norms and modern democratic practices since the 1970s, for her senior thesis. Last year, Ella’s paper on W.E.B DuBois was published in the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal and was designated as one of the best papers for the 2016-2017 academic year. She will study Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen’s University Belfast.
Keshav Goel is a dual major in Biology and Economics at Williams College. Understanding that socioeconomic inequality is one of the greatest public health concerns in the United States, he has conducted research on ailments that disproportionally affects the world’s poor. Growing up in Northern California, he co-authored his first published clinical paper at the age of 16 on the automated detection of congenital heart defects in newborns. He is currently conducting a yearlong senior biology thesis to uncover the mechanisms of asthma, which largely affects impoverished children. He has also conducted health economics research with Harvard Medical School to assess the quality and effectiveness of federally funded clinical trials. Keshav works as a peer mentor with a local organization to provide drama therapy to adolescent survivors of trauma. An aspiring physician, Keshav will study Immunology and Global Health at NUI Maynooth.
Makayla Haussler is a senior at Yale majoring in Political Science. Born and raised in Nebraska, she has been politically active since high school, working on reproductive rights and social justice issues. At Yale, she’s held various positions with College Democrats, served as chairwoman of a Yale student’s campaign for city council, and interned in the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, Planned Parenthood, and for other progressive causes. In 2017, she spearheaded Yale students’ campaign for a Connecticut bill to expand financial aid for undocumented students at public colleges. Last summer, she returned to Nebraska to intern at a local social justice not-for-profit and ended up working to prevent efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Makayla will study the political rhetoric of the Together for Yes campaign in the Gender Studies program at University College Dublin.
Alison Mahoney is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Bluelaces Theater Company, a NYC-based company that produces multisensory, immersive theater for audiences with developmental disabilities. She is also the Manager of Accessibility at Lincoln Center, managing several programs including an internship program for young adults with developmental disabilities and a performance series for individuals with dementia. Once a week, she co-teaches theater classes for students with disabilities as young as 9 and as old as 87. Raised in St. Croix, she became interested in arts accessibility at Northwestern University, where she graduated in 2014 with a double major in Theater and Gender Studies. In collaboration with Theater Stands with Autism (now Seesaw Theatre), Alison devised multisensory theatrical experiences for autistic children, the first of their kind at Northwestern. She will study Contemporary Performance Practices at Ulster University.
Rohan Naik is a journalist and researcher, currently working on an upcoming Netflix documentary series on the 14th amendment. Originally from Houston, he graduated from Yale earlier this year, where he worked as a reporter for the Yale Daily News and at the New Haven Independent. He was also an intern at the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and ProPublica where he researched and reported stories about air pollution in London and how police in the US respond to hate crimes. As the Head Peer Liaison at the Asian American Center at Yale, he created programming around the stigmatization of mental health issues and directed one of the university’s largest mentorship programs. He was also selected by Yale to conduct sexual violence prevention programming. In collaboration with the city of New Haven, Rohan also founded a gun buyback program. Rohan is interested in researching how society remembers and constructs the past and will study Public History at Queen’s University Belfast.
A native of North Carolina, Rachel Petherbridge is a Biomedical Engineering major at Boston University where her accomplishments in synthetic biology have earned her a Goldwater Scholarship and selection as a Harvard Amgen Scholar. She served as Vice President of the BU Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering group and is a Student Leader for STEM Pathways where she helps expand STEM opportunities for students in Boston. She was also a member of BU’s iGEM team, an international competition for students in synthetic biology, which won Gold (2016) and Silver (2018) at the Jamboree. Rachel began college with two passions: science and policy. She’s combined them by holding leadership roles in the BU Model UN conferences and working as a staff writer for the BU International Relations Review, where she’s written on topics such as the Zika virus and climate change. She will study International Public Policy and Diplomacy at University College Cork.
Mitchell Polonsky is an English and Theater, Dance, and Media double major at Harvard University, where he has directed 18 plays in addition to assisting professional directors on major stages around the world. A believer that performance can be a social service, Mitchell has directed productions in uncommon places. He directed a free double-bill of Brecht’s Life of Galileo and Buchner's Woyzeck in the central courtyard of the Fogg Art Museum and directed a production of Sophocles’’ Antigone at Harvard Stadium, attracting over 6,000 community members. Earlier this year, he was awarded a fellowship to direct a Tennessee Williams’ production at the Bunker Theater in London. When his rehearsal schedule provides a break, Mitchell works at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, distributing necessities to those who cannot be accommodated by the shelter. A Cincinnati native, Mitchell will study Theater Directing at The Lir, Trinity College Dublin.
A New York native, Kara Schechtman is a double major in English and Computer Science at Columbia University. Interested in the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence, Kara completed summer internships at Google and, most recently, at YouTube, where she worked on a project to improve the quality of Mixes, which are infinite auto-generated music playlists. On campus, Kara was Co-President of the Columbia chapter of Lean In, where she quintupled its membership and oversaw the creation of a mentor program that partners 70 Columbia women with women professionals in NYC. She received Columbia's King’s Crown Award in Principled Action for her Lean In work. Kara was also the Features editor for the weekly magazine of the Columbia Spectator, Columbia's newspaper of record, and created the first podcast of the publication. She will study Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin.
Matthew Wigler is a Political Science major a Stanford University and is interested in both national and international politics. During his internship with the State Department in 2017, Matt worked with diplomats at the US Mission to the United Nations to expand the sanctions regime targeting North Korea. He also served Ambassador Nikki Haley in her executive office, working to help coordinate the 2017 UN General Assembly. Last summer, Matt was awarded a Stanford grant for the Purple America Project. With the goal of understanding and combating political polarization in the United States, Matt traveled with the leader of the UC Davis College Republicans to 14 split-ticket Congressional districts to engage swing voters. His blog, Swing District, documented his travels and conversations. Matt serves as an undergraduate student senator at Stanford and as Vice President of the College Democrats on campus. A Long Island native, he will study International Politics at Trinity College Dublin.