By the Numbers: Near’s 2024–2025 Tour of Maine High Schools

As we reported this past fall, Mitchell Institute Scholarship Director Casey Near (pictured upper right) made an ambitious offer to Maine high school leaders in September: to visit their school with a Mitchell Scholar and provide students with guidance on the college search and admission process as well as help with opening Mitchell Scholarship applications.

Near didn’t know how many takers she would get, but she knew the offer could involve driving a lot of miles and a significant amount of her time.

Whatever it took, she intended to make good on the Mitchell Institute’s stated mission — to increase the likelihood that young people from every community in Maine will aspire to, pursue, and achieve a college education.

“Maine has thousands of students each year who consider applying for college, and I wanted to find a way to support them on their path to college, even if they don’t become a Mitchell Scholar,” she said.

Within days of emailing school leaders statewide with the proposal, Near had no shortage of invites.

Since October 1, she has driven nearly 3,000 miles and visited 29 high schools and youth-serving organizations statewide to encourage students to apply for college and the Mitchell Scholarship. She has ventured as far north as Fort Fairfield and as far south as North Berwick to meet with guidance counselors and 400 students.

These are just a few of the stats associated with Near’s 2024–2025 Tour of Maine High Schools — the largest and most far reaching in Mitchell Institute history — that are worth noting. Read on for more facts about her statewide tour, including which schools yielded the greatest increase in Mitchell Scholarship applications over last year and which convened the greatest number of students to hear Near speak.

As mentioned above, Scholarship Director Casey Near has driven nearly 3,000 miles to visit high schools statewide over the past five months.

Near visited 29 high schools and youth-serving organizations throughout Maine during her 2024–2025 tour to encourage students to apply for college and the Mitchell Scholarship. She ventured as far north as Fort Fairfield and as far south as North Berwick. She met with the biggest groups of students and staff at Maine Central Institute, Maranacook, Oxford Hills, and Stearns. And while she may have only met with 20 students at East Grand, they comprised the school’s entire junior and senior classes.

In addition to strengthening relationships with guidance counselors and school officials, Near met with 400 Maine high school students at those 29 visits, presenting on topics ranging from how to manage the college search process and understand a typical financial aid package to the many benefits of the Mitchell Scholarship. And through her two YouTube video series on how to apply for college and apply for the Mitchell Scholarship, she also virtually assisted nearly 700 viewers.

At this writing (three days before the March 1 deadline), more than 200 students from those 29 visits had submitted applications for the Mitchell Scholarship. (Some applicants have yet to indicate their high school on the application, meaning that 200+ figure is sure to rise.)

Aside from bringing Maine high school students closer to applying to college, one of Near’s goals was to increase awareness of the Mitchell Scholarship. And what better measure of that than an increase in the number of applications? By that yardstick, her high school visits were a success. At this writing (three days before the March 1 deadline), Near reported a 25% increase in applications from Penquis Valley, a 25% increase from Oxford Hills (and a 100% increase from two years ago), and a 125% increase from Ecology Learning Center, a publicly funded charter high school in Unity. (Again, as some applicants have yet to indicate their high school on the application, these percentages are sure to rise.)

Near’s statewide tour of Maine high schools yielded not only increased applications but also some personally significant connections.

What better way to launch the endeavor than with a Mitchell Scholar and a Mitchell Scholar Alum? Thus, Near held her first visit on Tuesday, October 1, at Portland’s Casco Bay H.S. with Mitchell Scholar Baqer Jalil, the school’s 2023 Scholar (and now a sophomore Electrical and Computer Engineering major at the University of Southern Maine) and at the invitation of Jolie Semuhoza, the school’s 2014 Mitchell Scholar and now the Make it Happen program coordinator there.

And at Lawrence H.S. in Fairfield, Near was joined by former Mitchell Institute Scholarship Operations Manager Adam Thibodeau, the school’s 2001 Mitchell Scholar. For Thibodeau, who has since moved on to become the Associate Director of Donor Relations at Colby College, it was his first presentation at Lawrence — 24 years after he graduated from the school.

For One Scholar, A Full-Circle Moment

At many of her presentations, Near was joined by Access Ambassadors — currently enrolled Mitchell Scholars who volunteer to promote the Mitchell Scholarship at their high schools and share a powerful message with juniors and seniors: There’s a college out there that’s right for you, and there are ways to make it affordable, too.

Launched by Near over summer 2024, the Access Ambassador program is the first of its kind at the Mitchell Institute, offering Mitchell Scholars the opportunity to make an impact in their communities, sharpen their public speaking skills, and be inspirational role models.

At Lewiston H.S., Near was joined by Mitchell Scholar Access Ambassadors Alex Gutshall (above left), one of the school’s 2023 Mitchell Scholars and a sophomore Social Work major at the University of Maine, and Olivia Morel (above right), the 2021 Mitchell Scholar from Leavitt Area H.S. and a senior Homeland Security major at the University of New Hampshire. For Gutshall, the return visit to L.H.S. was a full-circle moment. Two years ago, she was among a group of Lewiston H.S. seniors who heard a similar presentation in the very same room from then-Scholarship Director Kim Gustafson, along with L.H.S.-alumni Mitchell Scholars Hunter Steele ’19 and Melina Masselli ’20.

“I remember being a senior and sitting in that same room, knowing nothing about the Mitchell Scholarship and expecting it was unachievable for me,” Gutshall said. “But I applied anyways because I thought, why not? I am so grateful I did. The Mitchell Institute has supported me in ways I could have never imagined when I applied for the scholarship. This made the Mitchell Scholarship something I am passionate about sharing with those who may be in the same shoes I was — a stressed-out high school senior who believed none of her grades or achievements were ‘enough’ or would amount to anything when it came to college and scholarships.”

At Stearns, Gratitude for Near’s Guidance

Developing a good rapport with guidance counselors has been a mainstay of the Mitchell Institute’s strategy for raising awareness about the scholarship since the first were awarded 30 years ago. Near’s visits and her tip-filled video series on applying to college and applying for the Mitchell Scholarship were intended to help not only high school students, but also guidance counselors — many of whom are immersed in helping students with behavioral health issues. At Stearns H.S. in Millinocket, where Near was joined by Mitchell Scholar Access Ambassador and Stearns alum Grace Murray ’21, the pair found guidance counselor Sue Buzzell, LSW, grateful for the messengers and their message.

“This is the first time we have ever hosted anyone from the Mitchell Institute, and I liked the fact that Casey provided an educational piece on financial aid as well as a lot of insight into what they were looking for on the scholarship application,” Buzzell said. “It was also great that she brought Grace with her. She talked about all the things that the Mitchell Institute can provide for a student besides the scholarship. The students were all very interested in the presentation and asked a lot of good questions. I think that the students benefited from the presentation, and I know that a lot of them are currently working on the scholarship application.”

For Another Scholar, a Chance to ‘Bring the Mitchell Scholarship to Light’

At Dexter Regional High School, Near was joined by Access Ambassador Veronica Chun (above middle), the 2021 Mitchell Scholar from Bonny Eagle High School and a senior Biology major at the University of Maine. For Chun, whose UMaine employment includes meeting with accepted students across Maine and New England as a Team Maine Student Ambassador, becoming a Mitchell Scholar Access Ambassador was no stretch. But speaking with high school students who don’t believe college is within reach has been especially meaningful.

“When I was applying to colleges, I was unsure if I would attend a four-year university due to limited resources. But when I received the Mitchell Scholarship during my final week at Bonny Eagle, everything changed. The scholarship helped bridge the gap and helped relieve me of my financial hardship,” said Chun, pictured above with Near at Dexter Regional H.S. “I became an Access Ambassador to bring the Mitchell Scholarship to light for high school students who think higher education is unachievable due to that same financial hardship.”

Near Reflects on the Access and the Ambassadors

Near, pictured above with Mitchell Scholar Access Ambassador Annelyse Warner ’22, who co-presented at Westbrook H.S., made her final two school visits in the last week of February — at the same time she was getting ready for one of the Mitchell Institute’s signature events, MILE II, on Saturday, March 1, and the final surge of scholarship applications by midnight of the same day.

Time to reflect on the 2024–2025 tour of Maine high schools was, as the saying goes, scarcer than hen’s teeth. But Near allowed herself a small measure of approval for how it went — and what it meant.

“Watching the Access Ambassadors bring the possibility of a college education to life for high school students was truly gratifying. The Mitchell Scholars who joined me lived up to their titles by making higher education so much more accessible to young people in Maine,” Near said. “When I joined the Mitchell Institute and started meeting with Scholars, I could see that they had a hunger and an earnest desire to find a way to give back to their communities. If there’s one thing that I learned from the tour it’s that Mitchell Scholars will continue to have just as many, if not more, ambassador opportunities to make a difference.”