Let’s Get Social: December 2024 ICYMI, here’s a sampling of what was liked, loved, and shared on our social media channels in December 2024.
Alumni Holiday Social fills the Mitchell Institute with Holiday Cheer
Thanks to the Mitchell Institute Alumni Council and our Events Manager, Alex Carrier Hitchcox, the organization’s headquarters on Washington Avenue in Portland were brimming with holiday cheer, Alumni fellowship, and delicious treats and beverages on the eve of Thursday, Dec. 12. Mitchell Institute President and CEO Jared Cash thanked nearly 60 Alumni and guests for turning out to strengthen the Mitchell Scholar Alumni community and asked them to join in celebrating some big upcoming milestones: In 2025 — the 30th anniversary of Maine’s premier scholarship organization — the Mitchell Institute will award its highest-ever number of Mitchell Scholarships statewide (200), thereby investing in the success of 4,000 Mitchell Scholars from every community in Maine since 1995.
We say so Long, but Never Goodbye, to Adam Thibodeau
For Mitchell Scholars and Alumni alike, he’s been the person at the Mitchell Institute most likely to know the answer to your question, to connect you with a resource, and to have just the right words of encouragement when times are tough. In December, we said so long, but not goodbye, to Adam Thibodeau, who will soon conclude nearly 11 years of service to the Mitchell Institute, Mitchell Scholars, and friends of the organization. Soon after the New Year, Adam will be joining Colby College’s advancement team as associate director of donor relations. See his farewell message to Mitchell Scholars and Alumni here and our sendoff to him on social media at the link below.
UMaine Mitchell Scholars Build Community with GingerBread Houses
There was no shortage of holiday spirit among Mitchell Scholars at the University of Maine in early December, when Campus Ambassadors Annie Bickerstaff, Morgan Bill, Weston Hartley, and Jasper Makowski organized an evening gingerbread house-making event in Hitchner Hall. Gratitude was the driving force behind at least one design. In a nod to Senator George J. Mitchell, the gingerbread house creation by Hartley, the 2022 Mitchell Scholar from Edward Little High School and junior Biomedical Engineering major at UMaine, and Caramon Cotroneo, a 2024 Mitchell Scholar from Ellsworth High School and first-year Computer Science & New Media major at UMaine, featured the letters “GJM” emblazoned in icing on the roof. (After all, the Mitchell Institute is the house Senator Mitchell built for Maine’s college-going young people 30 years ago.)
Casey’s High School Roadshow Continues at Penquis, MCI
Scholarship Director Casey Near‘s Maine high school visits to promote college access and the Mitchell Scholarship continued at Penquis Valley H.S. in Milo and Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, where Near was joined by new Mitchell Scholar Access Ambassador Alex Gutshall, a 2023 Mitchell Scholar from Lewiston High School and sophomore Social Work major at the University of Maine.