Coleman Yorke CC’20, of New York City, has been selected as one of 12 recipients of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship’s Class of 2025. Yorke plans to study global mental health at Trinity College Dublin.
Established in 1998, a Mitchell Scholarship provides one year of postgraduate study at an Irish university in either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Named after Sen. George Mitchell, the program seeks to support future leaders in any field who will benefit from study in Ireland.
Yorke majored in English with a concentration in psychology; was an editor for The Columbia Review; mentored high schoolers navigating the college application process through The Roger Lehecka Double Discovery Center; and volunteered in patient escort services at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
An aspiring psychiatrist and mental health educator, Yorke recently completed his medical school requirements through a premedical postbaccalaureate program at Bryn Mawr College before moving on to Oxford University to study clinical and therapeutic neuroscience. He is currently living in Seoul as a Luce Scholar and working in a lab at Yonsei University, where he continues to deepen his understanding of adolescent mental healthcare.
Yorke’s commitment to mental health and psychoeducational resources for young people has driven his interest in the role that culture and community play in adolescents’ perceptions of mental health and how that, in turn, affects the resources they seek out or receive.
As a Mitchell Scholar, Yorke is interested in Ireland’s “local destigmatization movements,” which have resulted in changing attitudes toward mental health for adolescents. “By working with local nonprofits and mental health activism groups I hope to gain an understanding of [how the] Irish [address] mental health for young people that I could bring to my work as a clinician and mental health educator in the United States,” he says.
Students and alumni can learn more about the Mitchell and other fellowship offerings through the Undergraduate Research & Fellowships Office.