ORONO, Maine — A total of 184 students from each public school in Maine were honored Saturday by former Sen. George Mitchell at the Class of 2024 Mitchell scholars welcome celebration on Saturday.
"It's the opportunity of a lifetime," Mitchell scholar Noah Hart said.
The Mitchell Institute has awarded more than $25 million to students across the state since 1995 to help them access secondary education.
"You're here because you, the scholars, are the future leaders of our state," Mitchell said to the crowd.
For almost 30 years, Mitchell and the leaders of the Mitchell Institute have been supporting secondary education for Maine students regardless of their resources and ability to pay.
“We really want to make the path to college more accessible for really great Maine students,” Casey Near, scholarship director at the Mitchell Institute said.
Out of over 1,500 applicants, the students were chosen for their academic ability, community impact, and financial need.
Each student received $10,000 for their four years of college.
"It's going to have a huge impact," Hart said.
This fall, Hart is going to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He said the sticker price for the school is $290,000 for four years.
Now with this scholarship and others, he's only paying $10,000.
"If not for the Mitchell Scholarship, I would've probably had to take out student loans, but this is completely eradicating that," Hart said.
The institute has helped more than 3,600 scholars from across the state since 1995.
This year’s students can now also access a vast network of alumni and resources to help them throughout their college experience.
"They're just an amazing institute, they're so supportive, financially and just emotionally; you can tell they actually care about you which is really nice," Mitchell Scholar Aziza King said.
For King, becoming a Mitchell scholar is about more than just the scholarship, it's about being part of a community.
"I'm a first-generation college student and a first-generation American, so it feels, like, powerful to me, and I've met a lot of people through the institute who have also experienced familiar things, like familiar hardships, so it's really nice to feel like a community," King said.
The majority of students, about 90 percent, will be attending college in New England this fall.