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PORTLAND, Maine — The Mitchell Institute held its 30th annual gala Friday, celebrating Mitchell scholars, alumni, and scholarship supporters.
The organization awards scholarships to 200 students from each school in Maine every year. Since awarding the last round of scholarships in June, the nonprofit has now supported 4,000 students in Maine.
Former Maine Senator George J. Mitchell started the organization after he received support to attend college. He made a commitment to ensure that no Maine student who had the qualification to attend college should be robbed of that opportunity because of inability to pay for college.
Mitchell Institute president and CEO Jared Cash said the nonprofit gives students more than just a pathway to college. Scholars have been able to build communities, receive consistent support, and reach goals they never knew were possible.
“When you think of our Mitchell scholars, they come from a variety of backgrounds,” Cash said. “Fifty-seven percent of them, we’re proud to say, are the first to pursue and finish a college degree.”
Deklin Fitzgerald received the Mitchell Scholarship in 2022. He graduated from Oceanside High School in Rockland. For Fitzgerald, going to college was a pipe dream, and he said initially, he applied to receive the Mitchell scholarship as routine.
“I think foolishly, I thought like every one of my peers in high school, where you apply for as many scholarships as you can in order to better afford college,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald quickly realized he underestimated the Mitchell Institute and its scholarship’s impact. He said, being a Mitchell scholar is much deeper than just receiving a scholarship. Leaders from the organization and other Mitchell scholars became his community and support system.
“It’s a family that rallies for your support, for your success and for your goals, and truthfully I’m thankful that I took the chance to apply,” he said. “Being able to be part of a community where they don’t judge you for who you are. They encourage you to be who you want to be.”
The Mitchell Institute provides fellowship programs and emergency funds to students as they work towards their college degrees. This funding helps scholars manage the unexpected challenges that life brings. Such challenges often leave students to make hard decisions to stay afloat, and some students have to put their education on hold to manage immediate life changes.
Fitzgerald said that he has used Mitchell Institute resources some 50 times since becoming a scholar. He recalls a time when his car broke down, and he was unable to both pay his tuition and pay for his car repairs. He considered taking a gap year from school. Instead, he was able to reach out to the Mitchell Institute for support, and the organization helped him cover the cost of his needs.
Fitzgerald said he had never received that level of support in his childhood. Growing up, Fitzgerald was tossed back and forth from one family member to the next. He said DHHS got involved in his home life early on.
“I was in the foster system,” Fitzgerald said. He was eventually placed in his grandparent’s custody, but the instability he experienced from hopping between his mother and his aunt’s custody and from being in the foster system was damaging, he said.
Having people to turn to, people who would consistently show up for him, was something new.
“Growing up I always thought I had to be someone I wasn’t. The idea of conform or adapt or get out of the way. It wasn’t until I really entered the Mitchell scholar community and had interactions with the institute and other scholars that I felt that compassion. That empathy,” Fitzgerald said. “The challenge to be yourself. To dig deep and determine who you are and who you want to be—that’s really been impactful to my growth, not only as an individual [but] on the professional sense. Knowing that I have friends, I have people that I care about that support me, who are only ever going to challenge me to be me and not someone else.”
Fitzgerald said he is now proud to be sure of himself and to know that he will be accepted to show up as he is. He credits that growth to the Mitchell Institute’s support.
“I am a good leader. I’m a friend. I not only care about myself, but I care about the people around me. And most importantly, I’m a scholar. I’m Deklin,” he said.
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