Mitchell Scholar Blogs

A few months into my Mitchell year I looked around my bedroom and realized I had accumulated a lot of artwork. Sketches lined one wall from floor to ceiling, some hidden behind stacks of canvases. I had framed two drawings “just because” and quite frankly it was getting hard to use my desk for studying as it was covered in paper and paint.

Almost as soon as I began to consider finding space for an exhibition, fellow Mitchell Scholar Rishi Ahuja approached me and asked if I wanted to have an art show in Dublin on behalf of 100Minds, a social enterprise that connects hundreds of Irish college students to raise money for a single charitable cause. This year, each student agreed to raise a thousand dollars for Childline, a chat service for children to reach out for help and support.

“Absolutely,” I said without a second thought, because I have never turned down a visual arts opportunity in my life. It took us a few more months to hash out the details. At the time I was working on two separate bodies of work. The first was a time-intensive series of abstract paintings. I used rapidograph pens to outline shapes from flowing watercolor paintings. Those paintings came from ideas of my own disordered sensory perception and how difficult it is to comprehend a scene, which involves deconstructing an overwhelming combination of colors, contours, and perspectives. My methods of drawing assumes the opposite process of creation rather than deconstruction.

My second body of work was more illustrative in nature, as deferential to absurdity as to beauty. I drew everything from a heron catching gummy worms to an ornately decorated pizza floating in space. With two very different bodies of work, I began looking for their common language. I found it in the repetitive markmaking. Just as my drawings pay homage to the sensory overload of sight and texture, so do my paintings obsessively document the separation of one color from another. Childlike delight and imagination is countered by underlying questions of escapism, of a visual that attempts a sense of control as it rides the line between aesthetics and lethal self-awareness.  From color story to content, I let my pieces influence one another and come together into a single body of work.

An art show is no small commitment. Panic set in about a month before the opening. Somewhere along the road I had started creating large-scale abstract paintings on my iPad. I wanted to print on aluminum, which meant I had only two weeks to finish four paintings. I was on a similar timeline for the many illustrations, all of which had to get framed.

The show itself was stressful and I think perhaps Rishi did not realize that he had chosen one of the hardest, most expensive, and most time-consuming methods of fundraising. Luckily we received support from all ends, from the framer who gave us a fifty percent discount to the 3fe café, who hosted our show and donated refreshments. I’m always an absolute mess but I was fortunate to have help from Dan Listwa, who helped install; Vincent Hughes, my friend from Galway who photographed the event; and Caroline McEvoy who handled a lot of the behind-the-scenes details and brought along her friends to work the show. I feel humbled when I think about how many people came together to make the show a success.

My stress dissipated as soon as our guests began to arrive, which I think is when Rishi’s stress really began. It was his job to lock down sales. I, on the other hand, was able to relax with a glass of wine and talk to all the Mitchell Scholars who showed up in support. It was a celebratory week for us, as we had also gathered a few days prior at the Lir to view Keelie Sheridan’s midterm performance art show.

In the end, our fundraiser was successful. The show felt like cathartic, a culmination of all my learning and experiences this year. Even though I’m still in Ireland for one more month, it’s like completing a video game and just having fun in the bonus levels. Well, if the bonus levels are graduate finals and a thesis…

I stress out before the opening.

Dan helps me with install.

Hanging the aluminum paintings.

Rishi and I are happy at the end of the night.

You know those cheesy romantic comedy movies? The ones that everyone actually enjoys but some people pretend to hate? I love those. You know how it goes: couple meets, couple falls in love, couple splits up, then at the end, usually with the help of a dramatic gesture, couple reunites and lives happily ever after. This is like that, but real, and with far more passion than a Gosling-McAdams kiss in the rain.

During my college search as a senior in high school, my mom suggested that we visit Villanova. Since it was my mom’s idea, I was immediately and passionately against it. Of course, moms are always right, and when I visited, it was love at first sight. Couple meets.

My freshman year, the basketball team had its worst season in years. Despite going 13-19, I was bursting with school spirit, and purchased a full wardrobe of Villanova gear from the bookstore. Couple falls in love.

Sophomore year was an absolute roller coaster. In the same season, we lost to Columbia by 18 points at home and beat 3 top-5 teams, Louisville, Syracuse and Georgetown. We made the NCAA tournament, but lost to North Carolina (the bad guys) in the first round. On the whole, it was a solid year for a rebuilding team. Couple dates.

Junior year was a good year. We were a top-15 team for most of the season, and a 2-seed in the tournament. We were poised for a deep run, but then we ran into the Shabazz Napier buzz saw as 7-seeded UConn rolled to a national championship. It hurt, but at least we lost to the eventual champions, and we had a strong team returning for my senior year. I was willing to move past the hurt and put my faith into the one I loved yet again, like so many of our rom-com heroes. Couple’s first fight.

Senior year we had a transcendent season. 33-3, Big East regular season and tournament champions, and a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. This was it, a storybook ending for my college career was imminent. Until it suddenly wasn’t. A loss to 8-seed NC State derailed our dream season. It was a very rough patch in our relationship: tears were shed, and I felt foolish for trusting them again. Couple hurts each other.

Inevitably, as soon as the next season kicked off, I had all been sucked back in by the alluring charm of the Villanova team. We played well and earned a 2-seed in the tournament, and nearly every bracket in my college pool had Villanova winning it all (admittedly with a fair amount of skepticism.) Couple begins to trust again.

What followed was a merciless roll through the South region: utter destruction of UNC Asheville, Iowa and Miami en route to a matchup with Kansas, the number 1 overall seed, for a spot in the Final Four in Houston. In a hard-fought battle, we knocked off the Jayhawk juggernaut around 4 am and I was euphoric. Couple dates again.

One week later, it was time for the Final Four. After calling around, I found that just one pub in the entire city of Dublin would be showing the game. I had two friends from Villanova staying with me that weekend, and we sent out the call to every Villanova fan we could find. We then watched as we demolished Oklahoma — BY 44 POINTS. It was 2 am in Dublin, I was crying tears of joy, and suddenly we were one win away from eternal glory.

Impromptu ‘Nova crew watching the Final Four

Shortly after our smackdown of the Sooners, the University of North Carolina dispatched Syracuse to set up a Mitchell Scholar showdown between Sasha and Tom (aka the villains) and me. The championship game started at 2 am on a Monday night, so I was watching alone in my room. The game was one of the best college basketball games I have ever seen. After Marcus Paige hit that ridiculous double-clutch 3-pointer to tie the game with 4.7 seconds left, the stage was set for dramatic ending. The final seconds will be forever etched into my brain: Jenkins inbounds to Arch, Chef sets the screen near half court, Arch flips the ball to the trailing Jenkins and sets a pseudo-screen to give him just enough space to let fly a 3 at the buzzer. Then, as Coach Jay Wright so eloquently said, “Bang.” Just like that, Villanova had its second National Championship in school history. Couple kiss in the rain.

Villanova’s entire tournament run led to a number of special memories that I will never forget, including the single happiest moment of my Mitchell year—recounting the final seconds of the championship game with Senator Mitchell. Couple lives happily ever after.

“My experience with Muslims all my life has been terrible. It has been a breathe of fresh air getting to know you. You have an infectious smile and are always happy.”

The opportunity to grow up in the United States was a blessing. I was born into a Muslim family, but I did not embrace my faith until I became an adolescent and awakened to the inequities of the world. By embracing God, I found my calling through my religion: to positively impact one person’s world at a time, even if I could not change the whole world.

This past year, I have become deeply involved in many facets of Maynooth University, Dublin city, and Ireland as a whole. Outside of a rigorous and diverse course load that includes science and humanities courses, I’m also engaged with several organizations, and try to be at the pulse of the entrepreneurial scene in Ireland. By wearing the hats of an entrepreneur, scientist, and student, I naturally connect with a vast amount of people. Through these roles and others, I am in regular contact with stakeholders throughout the university community, including students, faculty, staff, administrators, and I’m in a good position to understand their various needs. I also enjoy attending seminars and workshops at Maynooth and across Ireland. I am the type of person who is constantly meeting with and talking to new people. Based on my background and noticing a need, I focused on improving entrepreneurship with regards to the undergraduate and graduate community.

In terms of entrepreneurship, Maynooth is a leader for innovation and commercialization. They are making huge investments towards incubation centers, funding mechanisms, and improving business development strategies. While this focus is great for faculty, the student movement towards these resources has been slower. I became involved with the EDEN Entrepreneurial Center and the MaynoothWorks program to see if I could better understand resources available and connect students to them. Through the EDEN Center, I met with young entrepreneurs and acted as a support mechanism for the entrepreneurship competition. The EDEN Entrepreneurship Challenge is an annual event that allows students to pitch ideas and compete for small cash to support their concepts. I met with various young entrepreneurs and learned about their ideas and dreams. I’ve found from personal experience that if you ask enough questions, you begin to see the creativity wheels turn in their heads and outside the box ideas surface. I was also asked to attend the finals and showcase my venture as an example of what students can accomplish in front of a room filled with judges and members of the public. I received extremely flattering comments about my presentation and the organizers presented me with the following award.

“Special Eden Entrepreneur and Ambassador Milad Alucozai”

The second major event I organized was MaynoothWorks first Fireside Chat. Over the course of the year, I began a relationship at MaynoothWorks, an incubator and resource center designed to help entrepreneurs convert their ideas into a scalable business. By working with their management, we created an event geared towards the undergraduate and graduate community to help showcase the resources available to them, meet with a number of entrepreneurs, tour the new facility, and shared our experiences in entrepreneurship. One of the other speakers was Ollwyn Moran, an Irish entrepreneur who has launched three products internationally and is well on the way to building a valuable brand.

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/dragons-den-1203/10561363/

One of the specific aims of the evening was to bring home the thought that a critical success factor was getting the sleeves rolled up and and of course being willing to learn by failures. Many would be entrepreneurs often start off searching for the “perfect” way to bring their product to life which can waste time and effort and be the cause of a lot of frustration. The theme of the evening was it’s all about implementation after the right level of consideration. My goal is for the fireside chat to become an annual event that puts a focus on engaging with undergraduates and providing them the tools they need to create success that will filter back down to the university.

The academic semester officially wrapped up last week. It has been a time of mixed emotions, relief that exams are over, but filled with bittersweet goodbyes to all the friends I’ve made while in Ireland. At one of the going away parties, I had a friend take me to the side and tell me about what her interactions with me have meant for her. She had very bad experiences with Muslims when living abroad, and she claims I changed her mindset and made her curious about Islam and what it teaches. This is one of the most powerful moments this past year in Ireland. There is no better feeling than when you change minds by action and attitude. I strive to be a good Muslim; I stumble a lot, but I try to get back on my feet and keep going. The best way to change the hearts of others and for them to see the beauty of my faith is by leading by example and making it part of every aspect of my life.

I will miss my fellow Mitchell Scholars, who I’ve become close with over this past year. I know the future is bright for all of us, and they will all be strong leaders in their desired fields. The path will be arduous for us all, but we will never give up!

From now until September, I will be focusing my efforts on my dissertation. Ramadan will start next month, should be quite the adventure with late sunset and early sunrise associated with Ireland.

Please hop over to itunes and purchase the documentary, watch, review, and support the team. Seeing Salam Neighbor come together was an amazing journey.

Click this link to purchase/rent the movie -> http://bit.ly/iTunes_Salam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTQkDChNftU

If you want to know what I’ve been up to in life, follow me on twitter @miladalucozai

My final blog could not be complete without some more photos! Enjoy.

–“Into the Twilight,” WB Yeats.

It felt appropriate to start this blog with another Yeats poem, especially the above excerpt from “Into the Twilight.” I am currently in the midst of the twilight of my time in Ireland, as I will be returning to America in just a few short weeks. It is hard to believe that this year has passed by so quickly. I have done and seen a great deal; the memories of the past 10 months will stay with me for the rest of my life. Yet even with superficial similarities between the timeline of my own Irish experience and the title of this Yeats poem cast aside, similar themes persist when I reflect on the deeper meaning of those words written above. Specifically, I think of Yeats’s reference to an “out-worn heart,” and “mother Eire.”

Around this time one year ago, I was preparing for both a wedding and to spend a year in Ireland. I was also approaching the conclusion of my third year of medical school, traditionally held to be the most difficult of the four years spent pursuing an MD. It was a very busy and a very stressful time. While I was filled with joy and excitement at the prospect of a wedding and a move to Europe, I was feeling the effects of a particularly challenging academic year. I was looking forward to the change of pace and shift in focus that I knew would accompany my time in Ireland. In Ireland, the “out-worn heart” learned to laugh and to sigh once again. I was able to pursue long-held interests like the study of Irish language, Gaelic football, Irish history, and more.

My favorite experiences from this year have been those spent with family and those spent exploring my roots, learning more about where the people who came before me were from. Over the past nine months, I have seen the birthplaces of five of my great grandparents; I have walked around their hometowns, visited the graves of their parents, and tried to imagine what life was like for them in early 20^th century Ireland. In a few weeks, when my parents and grandmother come to visit me shortly before my wife and I head home to the United States, we will visit the hometown of two other great grandparents, Thomas O’Brien and Anna Shanley, who were the parents of my grandmother who is coming to visit. When I first came to Ireland in 1998 with my family, we visited Grandma Anna’s childhood home in Leitrim; a photograph of this trip sits on my desk. When I return at the end of this year, I will recall that while my family’s story in Ireland stretches back generations, this constant pattern of rediscovery displays that “mother Eire is always young.”

So, in one of my previous blogs (which you can find here: January Mitchell Blogs , and scrolling down until you see “Shoutout to Papa”) I tell a bit of the life story of one of my biggest heroes, my grandfather, affectionately known to pretty much everyone as “Papa”.

Papa was born in a little village in northeastern Poland called Plociczno sometime in November 1935. He lived under Nazi occupation from 1939-1944, until his family was forced to flee their home in the middle of the night to avoid an advancing Soviet army (his father had been a leader in the failed 1917 Ukrainian War of Independence, and would have been executed by any Soviet forces). After being forced to work in a German labor camp until the end of the war, Papa and his family slowly made their way across Europe and then to the United States, where Papa would become an All-American soccer player, meet my Gramma, and eventually become the greatest grandfather of all time.

Anyway, in my prior blog, I talk about a conversation I had with Papa where he showed me Plociczno on google maps, told me stories about life under Nazi occupation, and mentioned that he had never returned to the village he was forced to flee 72 years ago. I then promised Papa that I would go visit Plociczno for him, and he could see it through my pictures and videos. We both thought that was pretty cool.

And then I did it!!!!!

With the help of some extended relatives, I managed to get the email address of my great-grandmother’s sister’s granddaughter Monika Prokopczyk, still living in the nearby town of Suwalki. And on April 27^th, after a two hour bus ride to Dublin, three hour flight to Warsaw, and six hour bus to Suwalki, I got to meet my incredibly kind and loving family in Poland for the first time.

Meeting my family in Poland for the first time!

This is a picture of me as a baby that my Polish relatives had in a photo album in their living room. Two months ago I didn’t know I had relatives in Poland.

The next day we took a trip out to Plociczno, and after talking with the man who currently lives there, I got to walk through the house Papa used to live in.

Standing outside Papa’s home!! I am very thankful North Carolina does not snow in late April

Made it to Plociczno!

For the first time in months I got to eat real-people sized food. I must be Polish!!

Even disregarding how awesome it is to meet long-lost relatives in a far-away country, I am truly blessed to have had this experience. With some help from my lovely personal videographer for the weekend, Rachel Green (thanks Rach!), we got a lot really great video of Plociczno, and we even got each family member to introduce themselves and give a short message to Papa in Polish. I should be able to turn it into a pretty sweet montage, and I think it will make a fitting Christmas present for the greatest Papa ever.

Anyway, I don’t want to end my last blog from Ireland by talking about Poland (though I had to spend most of my blog talking about it simply because it was SO COOL). I am truly thankful for the year I have had here in Ireland, though I can’t believe it’s already over. The friends I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had will last me for a lifetime, and I am beyond grateful that I was fortunate enough to be selected for the Mitchell Scholars program. And, as all truly great blogs must end: go heels!!!

Hello friends,

I had a really difficult time thinking of a topic for this blog post. I wrote my last one two months ago, and I really don’t do anything interesting enough to come up with another entire blog post in only two months. So I decided to read through some of the other Mitchell’s blog posts to get some ideas. I came away with a couple different conclusions:

1. My Mitchell friends are really cool and much better writers than me
2. I think only other Mitchells read these blogs
3. Everyone uses lots of pictures except me

So after taking into account all of these conclusions, I decided to write this blog to all my Mitchell friends. Listed (in alphabetical order by first name so Tara didn’t have to go last….sorry Tom) are my favorite pictures with each Mitchell scholar, along with one aspect of their character that I truly admire (I always had to choose among many!)

Dan: Intelligence

While I think this descriptor could be used for any of the Mitchells, Dan’s ability to put large words together eloquently in a sentence when discussing monetary policy, refugee crises, macroeconomics, or really anything else that adults talk about baffles and awes me every time.

Dan and I helping Keelie adjust to Ireland by helping her pick out some new sheets

Gavin: Faith

Gavin and I got to room together during our Mitchell orientation in Dublin, and during some fantastic pillow talk I got to hear about how Gavin’s faith drives his decisions and life goals. I consider myself honored to have heard about it then and privileged to see it work in his life now.

Dang we look good

Julianne: Creativity

I truly admire Julianne’s artistic creativity, because it is a gift I will never have. I love talking with her, because every conversation I have with her about her artwork or writing pushes me to think about the world in a way that I would never have thought of before.

No this is not Julianne. This is a swan. It turns out Julianne and I don’t have any pictures together. However, this is a piece of her artwork that can be found at https://rishi-ahuja.squarespace.com/ and purchased to support Childline, a 24 hour confidential listening service, showing that she is kind as well as gifted. We’ll get a picture together soon Julianne!!

Keelie: Queen

While I know “Queen” is technically not an adjective, I couldn’t think of any other words that did a better job describing what I (and everyone else on the planet) thinks of Keelie. Beyonce-esque in her grace, poise, fashion sense and general boss-woman status, it is really hard to over-compliment Keelie. And even if I did she would handle it better than anyone else I know.

The only way this picture could look better was if Jorge was here
Milad: Joyfulness

I don’t know if I’ve had a conversation with Milad that I didn’t come away from smiling, primarily because he was the entire time. Milad’s perpetual optimism and eternal joyfulness make me proud to have him as my friend.

Milad and I after he came to watch one of my basketball games!

Rishi: Adventurous

Rishi and I went on a trip to Iceland together this fall, and it was possibly the coolest trip I’ve ever been on. This is partially because Iceland is awesome, but I think primarily because Rishi’s love of exploration and new experiences made it an incredible adventure each and every day.

Rishi and I werkin it in traditional Icelandic garb

Two bros hanging out on a mountain in Iceland. Rishi gets two pictures cause I love both of these!!

Rachel: Strength

Rachel is the strongest woman I know, and her strength inspires me every single day.

Lol you can’t see Rach

Stephen: Kindness

I’ve gone down to stay with Stephen a couple times now in Dublin, and during each visit I was overwhelmed with his pillow talk wisdom, with what a cool basketball-loving bro he is, and with what a kind and gracious host he was. He even made me breakfast, which anyone who knows how much I eat will realize is actually tremendously impressive.

No words needed

Tara: Thoughtfulness

Tara is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. This past fall I took a trip to Galway a week after my birthday, and not only had Tara remembered it, she made me a birthday card and bought me chocolate!! I don’t even remember my own birthday sometimes. I was blown away with her thoughtfulness, especially considering the number of times I have mispronounced her name.

This is not a picture of Tara. It turns out we don’t have any pictures together either. This is a picture of the outside of the incredible birthday card she drew me. We will get a picture together soon too Tara!!

Tom: Maturity

While this may sound like one of the lesser cool things to be (who wants to be mature??), considering how little maturity I have I find Tom’s to be incredibly impressive. Kind of like the wise Mitchell-Dad of the group, Tom’s mature perspective, ability to drive manual cars, and advanced knowledge of human anatomy and modern medicine wows every time.

Everyone look at how mature Tom looks. Go heels!!!

Finally…

Selfie with all my friends!!!