So you want to know (more) about the Mitchell
I can't answer everyone's LinkedIn request, I'm sorry
It’s now been a little over a month since I left the Island, and I’m still finishing up my dissertation from my degree, but I still I get a handful of requests from people interested in the Mitchell to talk about the program, the application process, and what my time was like while there.
Typically, folks just want to know a little bit more about the process and what day-to-day life can look like once you’re there. So, if you’re looking for additional information outside of what’s written on the website so you can envision your potential life in excruciating detail (like I was before I applied), here are my most asked questions and my answers.
As always, take note that these are my opinions based on my personal experience and everyone has a different story when it comes to the Mitchell and their experiences on the Island.
Quick notes about me:
I’m a 2022 grad from a small private liberal arts college in South Carolina. I attended Queen’s University for an MA in Public History as a 2023 Mitchell Scholar. My background includes activism, social justice, leadership, and a general interest in studying community symbolic landscapes and connections between scholarship and activism. I had a 3.5 GPA, a long track record of campus and community leadership, and a strong commitment to future community-oriented public service.1 I applied during my senior year of college with the intention to apply to PhD programs in the next application cycle. During my Mitchell year, I spent most of my time in school extracurriculars or doing things with friends, had a three-month archival internship at the Linen Hall Library, ran the Belfast Marathon, helped organize a public history conference in the summer, and wrote (well… almost) a dissertation on Black (American) Public History traditions.
What’s the application process?
The application process goes quickly. After you submit your written application at the end of September, you’ll be invited to do a video interview. They use a program that gives you a few minutes to read a question and think about your answer, then it automatically begins recording you and your answer. This is short and quick, but the questions are opportunities to get to know you better in a different format. I don’t know if there’s a real way to prepare for this outside of being ready to not think too hard, be honest, and be yourself. This is my biggest piece of advice.
After the video interview, you may be invited to the semi-finalist and finalist interviews. Those, again, are quick interviews to get to know you better, understand why you’re interested in the Mitchell, and how the opportunity of going to Ireland may benefit your life and goals.
Some schools offer interview prep specifically for the significant national scholarships (the Mitchell, Marshall, Rhodes, etc), but I didn’t do that. I opted to go in with nothing but a smile on my face and my heart on my sleeve. I don’t recommend that— I cried in two separate interviews. We all get where we’re meant to be, but preparation will definitely help with the nerves.
How do you know if you’re the right fit for the program?
All of my cohort mates are so different, and all the Mitchell alumni I’ve met are pretty different too— there’s no one fit for the program.
The things we have in common are usually a significant track record for leadership in our communities, a commitment to investing in our future communities through our passion projects, and a strong sense of self. I think a big part of getting selected comes down to your “why” and what you hope to do with the opportunity if you’re afforded it.
I’ve never been on a selection committee as an alum, but I know the alumni community is very strong. These are people who you will be connected to for the rest of your life— who will be willing to go out on limbs for you and vice versa, so I think it matters to choose people who are interested in that kind of long-term community and engagement. Also, people who aren’t just looking for an easy way to travel, but who actually are curious about Ireland and want to build a relationship with the Island.
How did you pick a degree program?
I initially found the Mitchell by looking at Masters programs in Public History through the National Council on Public History (NCPH) and stumbling on a link to the Mitchell along the way. I realized that I could attend either the Public History program at Trinity in Dublin or Queen’s in Belfast and decided to go out on a limb and apply.
Belfast seemed like a cooler place and very aligned with my interests, so I put Queen’s as my first choice, Trinity as my second, and a social justice program at Queen’s as my third choice because it was somewhat related.
The location of the program you’re interested in matters a lot. The school aspect of the Mitchell is honestly an overstated portion of your time and energy for most scholars (there are exceptions for specific degrees that are quite time-consuming and otherwise challenging.)
In addition to picking a good program fit, you want to consider the fit of the city you’re moving to. My day-to-day life in Belfast felt pretty different than my cohortmates in Dublin and my friends in Galway. I can imagine the same would be even more true for folks going to Derry or Cork or elsewhere.
It matters to take care in picking a city where you can meet more than just your academic/professional goals, especially if you’re thinking about staying beyond the Mitchell year— which you should definitely consider.
How did you prepare for the interviews?
As I said above, I personally didn’t prepare with traditional interview prep. I was offered the opportunity to practice prep questions with my advisor, but I felt that would induce more anxiety for me.
Instead, I reviewed my application, made sure I had a very solid “why”, and promised to be as genuine and true to myself as I possibly could be. I knew there would likely be things that would surprise me and that I might fumble my answers occasionally, but I entered with an insistence on being wholly myself and giving myself grace no matter what happened in the interviews.
I fought off threatening imposter syndrome with frequent affirmations that regardless of what was to come out of the application process I was smart, capable, and worthy of an opportunity as significant as the Mitchell.
I also refused to compare myself to the other applicants. Even when we were given bios of other finalists before the final selection, I read their bios with care and took time to appreciate myself and my own accomplishments, and the fact that I had even made it that far into the process.
What was your time like on the Island?
You can read my brief blogs on the Mitchell website and you can get a sense from what I’ve posted here. I’ll split it into categories and rank out of five:
School (⭐️)
Unfortunately, school was the biggest disappointment for me. My program didn’t end up being the experience it seemed to be based on my research online for many reasons. Some of them being: difficulty in revitalizing the program post-covid, lack of courses that energized me, and most significantly, the effects of strike action.
I was not aware of how common strike action is at UK universities nor the extent of how debilitating it can be for students and their overall experience at the university, especially for international students. Though I supported staff in their fight for fair pay and decasualization, I did not enjoy being a political pawn in a wager between professors/staff and university leadership. This resulted in only receiving about half of my courses already very limited lecture time, and difficulty building relationships with professors, community with peers, and support in research/professional development.
I felt very unsupported by the university, especially as an international student, and often felt frustrated with the ways in which UK universities and courses are structured. I do not think I can ethically recommend anyone to attend my university, at least not in the school I was in (History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics) after the experience I had, but I have hope that the experience may be better for students in the future (considering maybe our professors will be adequately paid.)
On the other hand, I was lucky to get involved with a few clubs while at Queen’s, most notably the Students’ Union. This allowed me to make friends and feel connected outside of my program and school. Many students across the school were interested and active in advocacy and organizing, so while my classroom experience was super frustrating, I at least was able to feel connected to the university outside of the classroom.
And, I have to admit, the Queen’s Library is pretty dang nice.
Community (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
I struggled in the first few months (as most people might when they move to a new country where they don’t know anyone else) to find a sense of community. I joined clubs (Rowing which turned out to be a bust for me, and Students’ Union which was kind to me), but most of my close friends were found by extension of the other two Mitchells in Belfast with me.
Sarah invited me to drinks at a pub with her classmates in the Conflict program at Trinity in Belfast during our second week on the island and almost everyone in her course became my closest friends throughout our year together. And Gil introduced Sarah and me to his friend, Ellie, who became a Belfast Mitchell by extension.
These folks who I met in my first weeks would become foundational to my support system in Belfast. I later became good friends with a few people in my course— a few Irish folks, an English girl, but mostly a lot of other Americans. I struggled to feel integrated into the larger Belfast community, but my friends would make Belfast feel more or less like home even on the toughest days.
Travel (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Mitchell has no restrictions on travel like other big name scholarships, so when strike action wipes out three weeks of your classes or when there’s a long weekend thanks to a bank holiday, you can travel as much as you please. My friends and I were lucky enough to go to Spain, Scotland, Wales, and different places across the Island.
Other Mitchells in my cohort travelled a lot more. If you’re saavy with your stipend and your timing, you can hop on a RyanAir flight for 40 quid to France or Portugal or Spain and have a good lil’ vacation to warm your bones and get some vitamin D into your system.
Stipend (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Speaking of the stipend, it’s pretty good, and much more than the other big name scholarships. Ideally, you won’t have to pay for housing because it will be subsidized by your school, and your flight to the Island (and one flight back home) will be covered, so all you’ll really need to worry about is the cost of getting what you need in your dorm, food, and other basic necessities every month.
I spent the majority of my stipend on eating out with friends and excursions. I had to budget, and I dipped into my savings, but mostly, the stipend provided me a comfortable lifestyle. Mitchells in cities with higher costs of living like Dublin likely will have a different experience with the stipend.
Cool Opportunities (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
I was lucky to be in Belfast at a very significant time: 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement. This meant that my cohort got to experience a number of special things including getting to meet George Mitchell himself. Being a Queen’s student also afforded me special experiences because of the university’s prominence in Belfast.
The Mitchell does two outings with the entire cohort during the Mitchell year: one in Dublin and one in Belfast. During the majority of the year, if you want to see the rest of the cohort, you have to be pretty intentional about it, and it can be difficult depending on living situations if you need a place to stay overnight.
My favorite opportunities were getting to meet Mitchell alums— my cohort was lucky to get to attend the Mitchell Alumni Reunion which helped me feel so much more connected to the scholarship community.
I was also lucky to stay connected throughout my Mitchell year with a former Belfast alum and a US-Ireland Alliance acquaintance who when visiting Belfast would treat me to coffee or dinner in a mentor capacity.
There are many opportunities to get connected to folks who can assist professionally or personally, and I appreciated the reach of the scholarship community most in those moments.
Weather (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Belfast is perfect from June to July. The rest of the year, always have your raincoat on hand, don’t even bother bringing shorts, and if it is anywhere near December, have your depression lamp ready to go because you will not see the sun after 2:30pm.
In my first weeks in Belfast, two separate Uber drivers said, “There’s no bad weather, only bad outfits.” And I think this is true for the most part, though the weather can be excruciatingly frustrating in its insistence on temperamentality.
Summers, though, are difficult because climate change means heat waves without the necessary infrastructure. There were days I thought I was going to pass out in my tenth-floor apartment because of a 75-degree heat wave and no air conditioning or adequate airflow.
But the plus-side is if you like outdoor sports, besides rain and darkness, its almost always perfect to go play.
Hobbies (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
There’s so much time to invest in the things you’re interested in. This is a huge strength of the Mitchell and a plus to the downside of school basically being nonexistent from my day-to-day life.
If there are two things folks in Belfast do for fun its eat/drink out with friends or run around outside. There’s not much else to do most of the year, but it means that there’s always cool events, including run clubs, poetry workshops, record listening parties, coffee tastings, new restaurant openings, niche pop-up markets, etc.
So if you have a hobby, odds are you’ll be able to spend a lot of time doing it and you’ll probably be able to find some friends who like the same kind of stuff too.
Being a POC (⭐️⭐️)
I have written about this elsewhere, but mostly, it is as you might expect. People are friendly and generally well-meaning but can be ignorant and sometimes hurtful when it comes to race.
I was the only Black student in all of my classes and the only Black person in extracurriculars I participated in, so I found myself in some funny and not-so-funny situations, especially with older white folks.
If I had a pound for every time someone told me that Frederick Douglass visited Belfast after asking where I’m from, well, I’d have, like, a tener, but it got old quickly. I had a laugh with students visiting from Howard because they said almost everyone they’d talked to brought up Frederick Douglass immediately. My white friends were often surprised to hear this as no one had enlightened them on Douglass’ Belfast adventures.
I found Belfast and Ireland to be stiflingly white at times, and I found it frustrating that none of my classes engaged critically with race outside of my US History course (which, again, only met for half of the time.)
I was lucky to find a diverse group of friends, including other Black folks, who “got it,” but it could be difficult stomaching microaggressions that kept piling on.
Do you have any regrets?
I regret making school the primary focus of my Mitchell year. I wish I had focused more intentionally on building relationships with people in the Belfast community. In the end, I made some lifelong friends and will have long-lasting connections back to the Island, but school was a significant source of disappointment and displeasure, and I wish I could tell my past self to refocus sooner and invest her energy elsewhere.
I also would tell my past self to not listen to anyone when they say you can start your dissertation research in March and be done by the September deadline. Yes, you CAN do that, but you’ll be miserable from July to September.
Pick a topic during your first semester, do your lit review reading before the new year, and start the process as early as possible. Allow yourself to have a summer. Your work on the front end will give you something to get out of your tiny dorm for, and it will save you on the back end.
Don’t be like me now, enrolled in and actively working toward your PhD, still trying to finish your dang masters dissertation.
Any other advice?
Be yourself. Be genuine. Don’t think about what the application committee “might want to hear.”
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
Use the application process as a way to think intentionally about what you want in your next steps.
Try to make friends along the way— I set up a group chat for the finalists to chat and hopefully relieve some anxiety before the finalist interviews. It helped to humanize everyone, and I ended up reconnecting and staying in touch with some of the folks who weren’t selected. They’re all doing really cool things now (some of them went to the Island without the Mitchell), so rest assured even if the Mitchell doesn’t work out, something good is on its way to you. :)
Final notes
I can’t exactly say what the outcomes of my Mitchell year are, but I have since been admitted to a highly ranked grad school for my PhD and I have plans to continue my relationship with the Island through academic research.
The Mitchell certainly opens doors and the networking can be a huge tool for success, but I think if anything it gives you the confidence to advocate for yourself and go after opportunities you want. The Mitchell year helped me realize what was really important to me, including a necessary reframing on my approach to work-life balance.
The “wins” of the experience for you may not even really be related to the ethos and goals of the program, but instead, may just be about getting you out of your comfort zone and helping you grow up. That’s how it worked for me, at least. And I’m extremely grateful for it.
This is obviously not an exhaustive detailing of my experience and may not even satisfy your curiosity, but I hope it might help someone along the way. Good luck!!
I mention this because people get curious about the numbers because they matter so much in other applications for big scholarships. I really don’t think grades and numbers matter to the Mitchell process.