Senator Mitchell Honors Third Class of Scholars Bearing His Name

July 03, 2003

Senator Mitchell and the Mitchell Scholars The third class of George J. Mitchell Scholars received their 'class rings' from Senator Mitchell at a reception at the Belfast City Hall on Wednesday, July 2. The reception was sponsored by Andor Technologies, Biznet, the Hastings Hotels and KPMG. The rings are specially designed for the Scholars and are a gift from Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.

The Mitchell Scholarships are the flagship project of the US-Ireland Alliance, a non-partisan, non-profit organization created to strengthen ties between the United States and the island of Ireland.

Trina Vargo, President of the Alliance, introduced Sir George Quigley and thanked the Bombardier Aerospace Northern Ireland Foundation for its support of the Mitchell Scholarship program. She also expressed the Alliance's hope that many more Northern Ireland companies and individuals will become involved in the program. The Scholars spent several days this week touring Northern Ireland. Last month, the University of Ulster hosted them for a visit to Coleraine, the Giants' Causeway and Derry. Ms. Vargo noted that the Alliance "is immensely grateful for the support of Northern Ireland universities which have gone out of their way to make sure the Scholars have a great year on this island."

Many of America's future leaders are foregoing the longer-established Rhodes, Fulbright and Marshall Scholarships to accept the Mitchell Scholarship, which was named in the New York Times earlier this year as one of America's most prestigious scholarships. In addition to Bombardier and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, the program is further supported by the Irish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive/British Government, two anonymous donors, Automsoft, Becton Dickinson, the Crucible Corporation, and the McDonnell Charitable Foundation. USIT gives each of the Scholars a travel stipend so they may visit various parts of the island during the year. Corporate sponsors of the Alliance include: the Bank of Ireland, CRH, Diageo Ireland, Iona Technologies, the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, and Riverdeep.