Mitchell D.

My name is Mitch, and I was fortunate enough to have been granted the UCB Family Epilepsy Scholarship while pursuing my undergraduate degree. This scholarship allowed me to pursue my educational goals while greatly decreasing the amount of debt I incurred during the process. Easing this financial stress allowed me to take on less work responsibility during my educational career, allowing me time to pursue my passions and develop myself more fully and authentically. Without this scholarship, this process certainly would not have unfolded the way it has.

I have been fortunate to be able to develop a prosperous career as a professional Irish dancer, and have been featured on Broadway, on multiple international tours across five continents, and on dozens of locally and internationally televised events. Competitively, I was ranked 6th in the world, and I was able to win the New England Regional Irish Dance Championship five times. The time I spent dedicated to this development certainly would have been far less had I needed to work more to make up for additional tuition costs.

Today, I have retired from dancing and have earned both a master’s and doctoral degree in performance psychology. I currently serve as a Performance Psychology Specialist at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and work to develop mental resilience in current and future leaders of the United States Army. I also work in private practice to help performing artists improve performance by building mental skills that promote both performance and mental wellbeing. My wife and I run a small Irish dance school in New York state, and our dancers work tirelessly every day to achieve more than any of us ever thought possible.