Wardah Athar Receives Mitchell Scholarship

The Mitchell Scholars Program offers a national competitive scholarship designed to introduce and connect generations of future American leaders to the island of Ireland, while recognizing and fostering intellectual achievement, leadership, and a commitment to community and public service. It is named after former Senator George Mitchell who played a leading part in the Northern Island peace process. The scholarship is awarded each year to twelve high achieving students.

Among this year’s recipients is Wardah Athar. She will graduate from Georgetown University in 2013 with a degree in neurobiology. Her research interest is in the development of the cerebral cortex and neuropsychiatric diseases.   Athar is a Howard Hughes Scholar as well as a John Carroll Fellow at Georgetown and is president of the university’s Muslim Students Association. In this role, she has worked to create a relationship between the association and Habitat for Humanity, has organized interfaith discussions and prayer services, and is currently developing a civic engagement and advocacy effort that will address issues that directly affect the lives of Muslim Americans.  Athar, an Urdu and Spanish speaker, is chair of Georgetown’s first undergraduate-led committee dedicated to the support and advancement of undergraduate research. She has led the revival of the university’s interdisciplinary undergraduate research journal and is working toward the creation of a Center for Research and Inquiry.  She will study Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin.

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