The George J. Mitchell Scholarships are administered by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance. Winners of these prestigious scholarships are selected to pursue a year of postgraduate study at universities on the island of Ireland. Created more than a decade ago, the scholarship program was named in honor of U.S. Senator George Mitchell’s role as chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks.
The program has been slated for elimination from the budget of the Department of State but a campaign by elected officials, university presidents, and the government of Ireland persuaded the State Department to continue the program for the present time.
This year’s fifteenth class of 12 Mitchell Scholars was chosen from nearly 300 applicants. Only one of the 12 new Mitchell Scholars is an African American.
Destenie Nock is a senior at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, where she is majoring in electrical engineering and applied mathematics. She spent four weeks in Malawi last summer teaching young women to make reusable, environmentally friendly sanitary napkins. In Ireland, Nock will study sustainable electrical energy systems at Queen’s University in Belfast.
