Casco’s Alaina Clark, 2004 Mitchell Scholar

The Mitchell Institute “made college so much easier for me,” said Alaina Clark, 21, of Casco. She was named a Mitchell Scholar when she graduated from Lake Region High School in 2004.

She is starting her senior year at Colby College in the fall and is majoring in environmental studies with a concentration in conservation biology. This summer she is interning at the nonprofit Lakes Environmental Association in Bridgton and monitors the chlorophyl and phosphorus levels of local bodies of water.

“They were excellent, they were such a big help,” she said of the Mitchell Institute. She said she was chosen for the scholarship in high school because of her participation in the math, soccer, softball and cross-country teams.

Years before getting the scholarship, Clark had an encounter with George Mitchell. She interviewed him on videotape about his work in Ireland when she was in middle school.

Clark said she would like to stay in Maine, but is considering studying at graduate school in Boston.

“I definitely want to come back (to Maine),” she said.

Windham’s Janessa Vance, 2003 Mitchell Scholar

Janessa Vance, 22, graduated from Windham High School in 2003 and majored in nursing at the University of New England.

“It was a pretty expensive school,” she said. “So it was good to have financial help.”

Vance graduated the two-year program in 2005 and works as a registered nurse at Maine Medical Center’s Family Practice Clinic. She is also currently attending the University of Southern Maine to be a triage nurse for emergency situations.

“Had I not been a Mitchell Scholar, I wouldn’t have been motivated to go back,” she said.

Vance said she wasn’t a straight-A student in high school, but was very active. She was the senior class president and involved with groups like the Kiwanis Club and the National Honor Society, and played sports like soccer, basketball and cheerleading.

Windham’s Janella Vance, 2005 Mitchell Scholar

Lightning struck twice in the Vance family concerning scholarships from the Mitchell Institute. Janella Vance, Janessa’s sister, also received the Mitchell Scholarship when she graduated in 2005.

The younger Vance was vice president of her class for her first three years of college and class historian her senior year. She was in the Key Club and was a cheerleader, soccer player and track athlete. She is majoring in exercise science at Southern Maine Community College and minoring in business.

She is currently an assistant teacher at Birchwood Nursery School in Windham and works with about 20 kids.

“It’s great, I enjoy working with children,” she said. “They’re so interesting to watch.”

She said she hopes to work with physical rehabilitation, but is open to other possibilities, such as using her business minor to run her own gym.

She said the Mitchell scholarship helped her pay for books and meals at school.

“It’s helped out quite a bit,” she said. “There are so many opportunities attached to it as well.”

Both Vances have purchased Red Sox tickets offered at cost on Maine Day each year through the Mitchell Institute.