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service Mitchell Scholar Blogs cataloging excellence in public service Home About ← Older posts souvenirs Posted on March 31, 2024 by Teresa Gao Known in the musical community as a viola hickey, the welt under my left jaw has purpled significantly since September. Its coloration has suffered from long hours in the Trinity Orchestra (including getting stranded in Scotland by storms during our tour) and paid gigs (through which I appreciate the irony of supporting my career in STEM by pursuing my dreams in the arts). But I am proud to wear the blemish on my neck as a badge of my musicianship, a testament to my involvements, a scar of today that will become a story of tomorrow. Beyond music, my other recent exploits have also left their marks. My fingers are burned from making colcannon with our Irish housekeeper’s recipe. My heels are blistered from wandering Dublin with a visiting Marshall. My nose is bronzed from climbing castles in Portugal with MIT friends. And my shoulders are stiff from curling over my laptop, scratching my head over the latest OpenGL programming assignment. Through my aches and pains, I am gratified to know that my growth in the past seven months has manifested in measurable ways. Bodily or otherwise, my takeaways from this year will certainly carry forward through the rest of my life. As I look ahead to my departure from the island, I count every callus and savor every sore, appreciative of the souvenirs that I’ll always have of my Mitchell year. Posted in Technology , Trinity College Dublin | Tagged George J. Mitchell Scholarship , ireland , Music , orchestra , Trinity College Dublin (TCD) , viola | Leave a comment The Pursuit of Purpose – the most anticipated drop of 2024” (according to some) Posted on March 31, 2024 by Neel Mupparapu The last time we spoke, I mentioned how time felt like it was going by fast, but I realized time almost always will feel like this. Sometimes, it feels like it’s going faster and faster as we grow up, but maybe that’s just perception. Maybe, it’s rather how we view the time that we have that creates the concept of how fast that time goes. I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s already March, and I truly can’t believe that it’s already spring. Sometimes, it feels like we’re searching for something in our lives, and even when we don’t know what that is, we still feel the urge to continue to search for it. I ask myself questions. What are my values? What do I value most? What’s important to me? What do I want? What changes do I want to see in the world? What do I want my legacy and impact to be? How do I want to make that impact? These questions come closer to the pursuit of purpose, and that journey of pursuit will continue. I am on that journey now, pursuing joy and purpose. There are moments along this journey that sometimes feel like that they were meant to happen. Regardless, let’s talk a little bit about some of my adventures in Ireland thus far. So far in Ireland, I also visited Cobh, the ring of Kerry, Kilkenny, and Belfast! I also experienced St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin! Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment Relearning to be present in Dublin—the moments between the moments Posted on March 25, 2024 by Vivek Kanpa Hello friends! At the time of writing this blog post, I am sat beside a large window at The Pulse Café @ UCD watching the snow fall, quickly covering up the tread marks of previous cyclists. Pulse is my third place, and I’m grateful for the comfort that the cafe brings me. I’ve befriended the barista staff, becoming closest with Santiago. He is originally from Argentina, loves Eastern European Christmas markets, and feels most self-confident after a fresh haircut. Every morning, we share a little bit of our day with each other; he tells me about a new workout split he’s trying, and I tell him about a big meeting that I’m stressing about. Pulse Cafe—perfectly positioned and amazingly priced! In recent years, I’ve become acclimated to moving fast and moving toward a destination. But this year—and specifically right now —as I watch the snow turn to slush and passers-by take photos of white-covered branches, I feel, for the first time, no urgency to get anywhere quickly. In many ways, my third place is the antithesis of my first and second places, and thank gosh for that. A snowstorm takes Dublin—a visiting friend sat on the Aircoach for 2 hours this morning! I’ve always been a future planner (an optimistic spin on my chronic worrier tendencies). I’d always chalked up future planning as a skill to justify escaping a chaotic and overwhelming present. I could step away from the abundance of new experiences (which require decisions, and opportunity costs) that surround me by hyperfixating on what came next. By looking to the future, I became comfy knowing what to expect, and I thought I was doing a responsible thing by alley-ooping” my future self. Perhaps in the process though, I became afraid by the open-endedness of the present. My opportunity tracker, filled with 450+ personal, professional, and academic opportunities that caught my eye My insecurity surrounding finding my next thing” is why I always travel with my laptop in my backpack—in any worst-case scenario, if I ever get overwhelmed by the present, I can set up shop in any café (my third place) and work toward a destination or find a new one. But quickly, I developed a dirty habit of escaping my present by ensuring my past self always made choices to keep my future self busy. In a moment of future panic during a weekend trip to Scotland, I pulled into a cafe on the Royal Mile to start my grad school applications. Killing some time in Belfast by getting ahead on a problem set not due for months. After realizing all this, I’ve tried to become more cognizant about finding a healthier balance between living in the present and alley-ooping my future self. On Tuesday’s, for instance, I take the 39A bus to Dawson Street—without my backpack—and spend the morning reading at Hodges Figgis and treating myself to a Citrus Tea at Costa. I spend less time listening to music on commutes and more time noticing the buildings and people I pass. I noticed that I addressed burnout from internship work by opportunity shopping” for future projects or trips, so nowadays I’ll work on my internship projects near a museum or park, so that I can explore the area when I find myself drifting into worries about the future; most recently, I’ve been able to visit the National Gallery, The Irish Emigration Museum, and Merrion Square Park. Hodges Figgis! Best bookstore ever. EPIC Irish Emigration Museum, a pitstop between a morning and afternoon work session. The Royal Irish Academy, my favorite work destination on my favorite street in Dublin I’m starting to see the upside in slowing my pace, embracing newness where my feet are, and not seeking to make sense of a hazy future. And this is a lesson I couldn’t have learned at a more pivotal time—last week, I committed to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to begin a PhD in AI & Emerging Technologies for Medicine! The program commences in August following my graduation from UCD, and although I’m eager to start imagining what my life in New York will look like, I find myself equally eager to relish exactly where I am right now. Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment Giving My Brother a Glimpse Into My New World Posted on March 19, 2024 by Alexander Firestine Where do I start? When reflecting on the last few months, I realized how much I’ve grown throughout this program. With an abundance of new friends, experiences, and challenges, this program has been one of the most rewarding in my life. I couldn’t decide what to write about, so I’ll just tell a story of the visit I’ll be telling my future kids about. A little over a week ago, my brother came to visit. I have a strong relationship with all of my brothers, and we’ve had our ups and downs addressing family and personal...