Two University graduates were selected in January to receive Mitchell scholarships they can use to finance graduate study at any university in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Margaret M. Brennan, CLAS 2002, and Aaron M. Kurman, CLAS 2005, were chosen from among 236 applicants representing 171 American schools competing for the 12 scholarships.
This year the University is the only school in the country to have more than one Mitchell scholar, according to Nicole Hurd, director of the Center for Undergraduate Research. She attributed the University's success in producing Mitchell Scholars to the University's culture.
"It speaks well to our combination of academic rigor and public service," Hurd said.
The Mitchell Scholarship program began in 1996 and is sponsored by the U.S.-Ireland alliance with the goal of familiarizing the next generation of Americans with the island of Ireland.
The University has been recruiting applicants every fall since then, Hurd said. University graduates apply for the scholarship by seeking the University's nomination. After the University submits its nominees, the field is narrowed to 20 students nationwide who are invited to interview with the National Selection Committee, according to the Mitchell Web site. From there, 12 applicants are selected.
As many as 10 University students or alumni have applied each year, and over the past four years, five have become awarded scholarships.
Brennan will begin her year-long term at the University College of Dublin this fall, where she will be pursuing a master's degree in politics. She studied foreign affairs and Arabic at the University and hopes to continue studying Arabic in Dublin. She said she hopes the experience will compliment her current work as an on-air business news reporter for CNBC, so that she can ultimately pursue a career in international news.
"I'm excited about being overseas and interacting in academia with other people who are also interested in what makes people initiate change and build the political atmospheres that they do," Brennan said.
Kurman will pursue a master's degree in peace and conflict studies at the University of Ulster, according to the press release. He could not be reached for comment by press time.
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