2024 Grand Colleen

Gillian Chase Riley has been named the Mystic Irish Parade Foundation’s 2024 Grand Colleen Scholarship Recipient. She is a senior at Fitch High School in Groton, CT, where she is an IB Diploma Candidate. Activities/honors include: National Honor Society (2023-2024), High Honors (2021-Present), High Point Junior Scholars Award (2023) Sage Scholar Award (2023), Fitch Debate Team Dedication Award (2023), Mathematics Department Dedication Award (2022), Social Studies Department Award (2023), Mathematics Department Dedication Award (2023), English Department Dedication (2021), AP Scholar Award (2023) and Key Club International: Global Leadership Certificate (2023). She volunteers at the Mystic Aquarium and Westerly Hospital. She and her grandfather share a love of St. Patrick’s Day, calling it “our holiday”. Every St. Patrick’s Day she feels joy and celebrates with traditional dishes, funny family stories, and her all-time favorite tradition of dressing her dog up like a leprechaun. She plans to attend a four-year undergraduate college majoring in neuroscience or psychology, and then continuing on to medical school in the future with the hopes of becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon.

Sophia Angeline Cabral is a senior at Fitch High School. She achieved Academic Chevron, Top 25 in Class, is a member of the National Honor Society, received Academic Honors all semesters and won the Women in Engineering Award STEM Department Award. She is the captain of the Fitch High School Field Hockey team, and is a member of the Fitch High School softball team. She has been a Mystic Irish Parade volunteer, Bill Memorial Library volunteer, Covid Community Advocate making, designing, sewing and distributing masks to essential workers during lockdown. She enjoys wearing bright green colors, decorating the house with shamrocks, listening to classic Irish music, dancing around the kitchen and eating corned beef and cabbage for dinner with her family to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. She enjoys volunteering at the Mystic Irish Parade and connecting with her community to celebrate her Irish heritage. She plans to attend a four year college and major in mechanical engineering.

Lauren Vossler is a senior at Stonington High School. She is a member of the National Honors Society and the Spanish Honors Society. She has received Academic High Honors, Spanish High Honors, Academic Excellence Award in Geometry, Academic Excellence Award in Physical Science, Academic Excellence Award in Studio Art Honors. She is a member of the Varsity Cross Country Team, Indoor/Outdoor Track and Field and won the Bronze medal in the 2023 Foot Locker Cross Country Northeast Regional Meet. She loves attending the Mystic Irish Parade every year with her family, decked out in green and listening to the bagpipers play. She has marched in the parade with her Girl Scout troop and enjoyed celebrating her Irish culture with her friends and community. Her great grandparents are from Ireland. Growing up she was surrounded by Irish family heirlooms, such as her family’s coat of arms and a shillelagh hung on the wall in her grandmother’s room. She plans to attend a four year college and major in engineering.