Five Women Named to the Nineteenth Class of George Mitchell Scholars

The George J. Mitchell Scholarships are administered by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance. Winners of the prestigious George J. Mitchell Scholarships are selected to pursue a year of postgraduate study at universities on the island of Ireland. Students are selected on the basis of academic merit, leadership, and service.

Created in 1998, the scholarship program was named in honor of U.S. Senator George Mitchell, who was chair of the Northern Ireland peace talks. The scholarships were originally funded by the U.S Department of State. Now the program is supported by Ireland’s Department of Education and Skills, Morgan Stanley, Pfizer, and the American Ireland Fund.

This year, 12 Mitchell Scholars were chosen from a field of 326 applicants. Five of the 12 winners are women.

Celia Hallan is a senior at Michigan State University. She is double majoring in international and environmental geography. During her college career, Hallan has studied abroad in Costa Rica, the San Juan islands, Argentina, and on the Antarctic Peninsula. She founded a Sierra Club chapter at Michigan State. Hallan plans to study geography at University College Dublin and then serve in the nonprofit sector.

Fatoumata Keita is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she majored in government and business. A native of West Africa, Keita now works for Bloomberg Philanthropies. In Ireland, Keita plans to study gender and women’s studies at Trinity College Dublin.

Anjali Misra is a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is majoring in brain and cognitive science. While at MIT, Misra has served as an emergency medical technician for the university’s ambulance service. She has trained over 1,000 people in CPR. Misra is co-president of SHINE for Girls, a mentoring program involving mathematics and dance. Misra plans to study public health at University College Cork.

Hadley Pfalzgraf is a senior at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is majoring in neuroscience. Pfalzgraf participates in the Neuron Research Program at the university and volunteers at a local hospice. She is also an advocate for promoting early childhood literacy. In Ireland, Pfalzgraf will study neuroscience at University College Cork. She then plans to enter an MD/Ph.D. program.

Shauna Rust is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in health policy and management. Rust currently serves as a public health analyst for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has conducted research on tobacco use by youth. Rust will study public policy at University College Dublin.