Georgetown alumnus Nate Wright (COL ’06) and senior Art Chan (SFS ’07) have been named 2008 Mitchell Scholars, the University announced on Nov. 20.
The Mitchell Scholarship is a competitive and prestigious program that gives American students the opportunity to study at institutes of higher education in Ireland.
Chan said yesterday that he will be earning his M.A. in Contemporary Migration and Diaspora studies, a topic in which he has been interested since his pro-seminar during his freshman year in the School of Foreign Service. Chan, whose parents are immigrants from Hong Kong, said that Ireland should be ideal for the pursuit of those studies.
“In terms of migration, Ireland has an interesting history,” he said, and not only because of large-scale emigration to the United States. “With Ireland’s booming economy, it’s recently become a country of immigration.”
In particular, Chan hopes to examine the degree to which immigrants are integrating into Irish society.
He said he hopes to use his knowledge and experience in migration studies to produce narrative feature films on the subject.
Georgetown’s Fellowship Secretary John Glavin, who oversees 17 scholarships, said that the program is highly competitive, and the application process is particularly intensive.
Chan agreed. During the application he was forced not only to present himself in the best light but also to come to terms with what he expected of himself, he said.
“We are very lucky, Georgetown holds the record number of Mitchells,” Glavin said. “Only a dozen scholarships are offered, and for two of them to be awarded to students from the same university is unusual to the point of rarity,” he said.
“To win one of the scholarships is astonishing,” he said, attributing the award to the character of the recipients.
Wright was unavailable for comment as of press time.
