 MSU grad wins 'Irish Rhodes' scholarship
Michelle Miles of Bozeman, a 1999 MSU graduate and member of the staff at the university's Writing Center, is one of 12 national recipients of a George J. Mitchell Scholarship. The elite scholarship, given by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance, has been called the "Irish Rhodes" scholarship and shares several similarities with the Rhodes scholarship. Mitchell scholars study for a year at universities in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Miles, a 1999 Honors graduate with degrees in both French and English, will be studying Anglo-Irish Literature at Trinity College in Dublin with an emphasis on examining the relationship of literature to culture. "I am interested in what people are doing artistically," said Miles, who will finish the year with a Master's of Philosophy degree."I want to use my love of literature to study ethics in terms of cultural relations." "The Mitchell Scholarship is an absolutely wonderful opportunity for Michelle," said Sara Jayne Steen, chair of MSU's Department of English."It is both prestigious and exceedingly well-deserved. Michelle is an enormously talented young woman who will represent our university well." Miles said she learned of the scholarship on the MSU campus and thought she might be a good fit. She is Irish-American on both sides of her family, had written her senior thesis on "Ulysses." The novel's author, James Joyce, as well as the Irish poet, Yeats, are among her favorite writers. Miles said her interest in Irish studies was also fueled by several MSU professors, including a class her senior year with Kimberly Myers, MSU English professor who researches Irish literature. Miles was an MSU Presidential Scholar who worked for Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on natural resource issues after graduation. She also has worked for the Northern Rockies branch of the Wilderness Society. She said both experiences have sharpened her interest in issues facing indigenous peoples and environmental conservation. In addition to teaching at the Writing Center, she is a student fellow in an environmental ethics senior seminar in the University Honors Program. In 1999 she was both a Woman of Achievement and a recipient of an MSU Alumni Chamber Excellence Award. Miles has studied ballet and modern dance for 17 years and hopes to be involved in dance and theater activities during her Mitchell year in Dublin. Miles said after she returns from Ireland, her goal is to earn a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities with a possible career writing and teaching in an university setting. Miles is one of a dozen Mitchell scholars selected from more than 200 applicants nationwide. Scholars were selected by a committee that included: Elliot Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Committee; Sean O'hUiginn, Irish Ambassador to the United States; Alice Ilchman, chair of the Rockefeller Foundation; George O'Brien, professor of English at Georgetown University; Sharon Hrynkow, deputy director of the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health; Kevin O'Neill, history professor at Boston College; and Allen Sessoms, Senior Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The US-Ireland Alliance, is a non-partisan, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. The George J. Mitchell Scholarships were named in honor of former Sen. Mitchell, (D.-Maine), chairman of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland.
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