ORONO — A University of Maine sophomore from Farmington was one of two students to be named a winner of the George J. Mitchell Peace Scholarship and will study abroad in Ireland as part of the student exchange program.
George J. Mitchell Scholars Gwendolyn Beacham and Lorna Harriman will each spend a semester at the University College Cork in Ireland. The scholarship honors the 1998 Northern Ireland peace accord brokered by Sen. Mitchell between Ireland and the United Kingdom and is open to full-time undergraduate students in the University of Maine system.
The scholarship allows one student to study for a year in Ireland or two students to study for a semester each with all expenses paid, including airfare. This year, for the first time, both winners are from the Orono campus.
Beacham, a molecular and cellular biology major and Honors College student from Farmington, will make the trip in spring 2014. Harriman, an elementary education major from Troy, will study in Ireland during the fall 2013 semester.
Beacham, who is on the dean’s list and is a presidential scholar, has won several scholarships, including the Lamey Wellehan Maine Difference Scholarship and the Pine Tree Section ASQ Sumner K. Wiley Jr. Scholarship, and most recently won the 2013 John M. Rezendes Annual Ethics Essay Competition.
Last summer she was awarded an IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence fellowship and spent eight weeks at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, where she studied the differentiation of primary mesenchyme cells, or cells that form the skeleton, in echinoderm embryos.
During the academic year, Beacham has been researching bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria, and has been focusing her research on the repressor protein.
Beyond academics, Beacham is the secretary of the UMaine student chapter of Engineers Without Borders and will be president of the chapter next year. She traveled with the group to Honduras during spring break to install a septic system to improve water quality in a rural community. She is also a member of the Sophomore Eagles, a UMaine traditions group and honor society, and participates in campus dance clubs.
Beacham credits UMaine with challenging her as a student and providing opportunities for personal growth in an open, friendly atmosphere.
“The academic courses, my activities, and my research experiences have been nothing but positive,” said Beacham. “I have learned that I am extremely passionate about science and scientific research, as well as about being involved in a community and helping others.”
Beacham says she considers herself lucky to be a student at a large research university and to have been exposed to research since her first year at the school. Leadership positions in UMaine clubs have also helped her gain confidence in her abilities as a leader.
“I never before imagined I would be able to work with a community in Honduras to help improve their sanitation, or that I would have my own independent research project while only being a sophomore in college,” she said.
Although she says she has worked with many UMaine professors and have had positive experiences with all of them, she has worked the most with assistant research professor Sally Molloy, both in the classroom and in the lab. Beacham says she appreciates the support Molloy has given her.
Beacham says she is honored to be able to study in Ireland as a representative of Sen. Mitchell.
“I admire his work very much, and am so appreciative of the support from him and the Mitchell Institute that will assist me in reaching my educational and career goals,” Beacham says. “I am also excited about being able to study in Ireland and experience another culture for a semester, and I am very appreciative of the financial support that will make this possible.”
After graduation, Beacham plans to obtain her Ph.D. in a microbiology-related field and pursue research in microbial ecology or astrobiology.
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