The Maine State Society of Washington DC is pleased and proud to welcome our 2024 scholars. Each year, the MSS has the great privilege of helping students attend Maine colleges and universities through the foresight and efforts of our supporters, donor and volunteers. These gifted Mainers are our future!
$1,500 Marjorie Pearson Scholarship Recipient: Shaylynn Koban
Shaylynn is a rising Junior at the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) where she has a 3.96 GPA and is pursuing a double major in Creative Writing and Psychology, with minors in Mathematics and Data Analytics. She has broadened her perspective through travel courses to Washington, DC, Italy, and France, and through participation in the UMF Writer’s Guild. Shaylynn submitted a professional resume that highlights her research experience in cross-cultural and social psychology and a summer internship, as well as her work on campus as an admissions ambassador and peer advisor, and ongoing work in pet care. She has volunteered since 2022 as a mentor at Teen Voices, which the UMF campus paper describes as “a literature-based program for girls in grades five to eight that creates mentoring relationships between UMF students and the program participants… to raise aspirations, enhance self-esteem, emphasize personal responsibility and decision making, foster inquiry, and create a strong commitment to the community for the young girls.” Since 2020, Shaylynn also has made it an annual priority to work with the guidance counselor at a local elementary school to provide toys, clothes, hygiene products, and games for local families in need. She is a graduate of Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, ME.
In her essay on different viewpoints, Shaylynn reflects on the importance of reading to gain insight into other perspectives, the need for society to better understand mental illness, the need for research to identify warning signs that can lead to criminal behavior, and the importance of effective communication in creating understanding and empathy. She states, “a world where we have more empathy for others is a better one, and I want to use my education to help make this change.”
$1500 Dirigo Scholarship Recipient: Chloë Sheahan
Chloë is a rising Junior at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, where she has a 3.95 GPA and is pursuing a double major in Environmental Studies and Government and Legal Studies with a concentration in International Relations. Her extracurricular activities include co-leading Sunrise Bowdoin, a national youth environmental movement, and playing Division III rugby. Chloë works in the campus library and as a research assistant in the Environmental Studies department. She spent the summer of 2023 giving back to her community as an intern for Blue Hill Heritage Trust. Her past volunteer work includes delivering food for the local food pantry and sorting thrift shop donations during the pandemic. Chloë is a graduate of George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, ME, where she was named class valedictorian.
In her essay on how climate change has affected her point of view, Chloë highlighted her childhood memories of exploring Maine’s natural beauty and the pressure her generation feels to address past generations' environmental mistakes. Learning more about climate change led her to study microplastics in Maine waters to better understand some of the impacts humans have on the environment. She more recently leveraged that past research to advocate for change in an op-ed encouraging Bowdoin to stop selling single-use plastic water bottles. Chloë hopes to use her education to build a career working on environmental policy, and recently participated in a Bowdoin Public Service cohort in Washington, DC.