Six Midcoast students were recently awarded scholarships by the Mitchell Institute, a Maine-based nonprofit scholarship and research organization founded by Sen. George J. Mitchell to improve college outcomes for students from every community in the state. The organization’s 2024 cohort of Mitchell Scholars includes 184 recipients representing public high schools statewide. Each receives a $10,000 scholarship as well as ongoing leadership and professional development programming and supplemental funding opportunities for activities related to career development.

Midcoast recipients are Seamus Bowdish and Isabel Dauphinais, Brunswick High School; Teagan Davenport and Kassidy Nobles, Freeport High School; Kaylynn Laplante, Mt. Ararat High School; and Thomas MacMahan, Morse High School.

The 2024 class of Mitchell Scholars will pursue their academic goals and career aspirations with the support of the broader Mitchell Institute community, including more than 3,600 alumni who mentor Mitchell Scholars and provide them with career networking opportunities. With financial and programmatic support from the Mitchell Institute, 89% of Mitchell Scholars complete college and achieve a degree, compared with 62% nationally, and more than 90% earn all As and Bs in their college courses.

Casey Near, Scholarship Director at the Mitchell Institute, oversaw the selection committee’s holistic review of more than 1,500 Mitchell Scholarship applications in 2024 that considered high school students’ academic history, community impact, and degree of financial need.

“Our applicants this year truly wowed us with their aspirations, their courage and their accomplishments,” said Casey Near, scholarship director at the Mitchell Institute. “By every measure, our 2024 recipients are exceptional.”

Forty-two percent of the 2024 Mitchell Scholars were inducted into their school’s chapter of the National Honor Society. Outside the classroom, 82% worked during the school year, they volunteered an average of 61 hours annually and nearly one-third were captains of a varsity sport. Seventy-two percent reported having a household income below the state median and nearly half will be the first in their family to attend college of any kind.

“From their letters of recommendation, we have students described as the fabric of the school, a force to be reckoned with, no better citizen, and a league of their own,” Near said. “We have valedictorians, Maine Principal’s Award recipients, Upward Bound participants, student body presidents, college-level researchers and three-sport athletes. We have big siblings who provide for their families and young people who have lived through incredible tumult. They truly represent the best of Maine. We are so proud of all these students have accomplished and all they aspire to.”