Law Student Named Mitchell Scholar
Georgetown law student Joseph Graziano (C’07, L’12) has been named one of nine George J. Mitchell Scholarship recipients selected this year.
The national scholarship allows future American leaders a year of graduate study at one of Ireland’s academic institutions. Graziano will take a break from his studies at Georgetown’s Law Center to pursue a master’s degree from the School of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Gallway.
“Over the years …, I have seen a remarkable line of young men and women going to Ireland as Mitchell Scholars,” wrote English professor John Glavin, who also serves as university fellowship secretary and director of Gervase Programs. “Joe is their worthy successor. He will make an enormously effective ambassador for us in Ireland.”
Driven by a deep sense of civic responsibility and his father’s courageous sacrifice as a New York firefighter during the Sept. 11 tragedy, Graziano hopes to use his graduate experience in Ireland to prepare himself for a career in public policy. His goals also include pursuing a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps.
The New Yorker graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown College with a major in sociology and minor in government and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. It was as an undergraduate that Graziano became interested in veterans affairs. He wants to work on behalf of veterans, helping them access the federal benefits they’ve earned through their service.
His undergraduate thesis anticipated that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan would experience high levels of negative stressors. In an effort to counter that, he began working with retired Lt. Col. John Sharp to represent veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veteran’s Claims. He also founded the Academy for Veterans and has worked as law clerk at the National Veterans Legal Services Program.
As a Georgetown undergraduate, Graziano started as third baseman on the baseball team, played as a four-time Big East Academic All-Star, and was named the team’s Most Valuable Teammate.
After graduating, he took his love of the game and commitment to service to a Dominican Republic barrio to run the nonprofit Beisbol y Libros, which uses baseball as an incentive for teaching children to read.
Glavin lauded Graziano’s success as a student and athlete, his work for others, his extreme modesty and his leadership on and off the field. “The odds against which he managed to carry all this off make him genuinely -- there’s no other word for it -- rare,” said Glavin.
The Mitchell Scholarship program, named for former Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), is administered by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Washington. Mitchell also received his law degree from Georgetown in 1961. Inaugurated in 1998, the scholarship honors the pivotal role Mitchell played in the Northern Ireland peace process.
(November 25, 2009)
