Amirault scholarship winners enjoy giving to others

Two students who find joy in serving others and who seek to live out their Catholic values are this year’s winners of the Catholic Foundation of Maine Lila Grace Sullivan Amirault Scholarships.

“I love volunteering,” says Mimosa Isimbi of South Portland, a recent Cheverus High School graduate. “I have a heart that loves to give.”

“I like to give back. It’s rewarding,” says Ryan Bussiere of Lisbon, who recently graduated from Saint Dominic Academy in Auburn. “If I ever see anyone who needs anything, I’m always willing to lend a hand. I don’t shy away from them.”

Established in 2013, the scholarships are awarded annually to two Catholic high school students who demonstrate a good work ethic, grounded in their Catholic faith. Grateful for his own Catholic school experience, the endowment scholarship fund was established by the late Patrick Amirault in memory of his wife, Lila. Mimosa and Ryan will each receive $5,000 to put towards their college tuition.

“I was shocked. I was out of words,” Mimosa says about winning the award. “I was so excited and am very, very thankful.”

“I was excited. It’s a pretty awesome scholarship to win,” says Ryan. “It’s going to help me a lot in college.”

Ryan is the third in the family to win the scholarship. His sister Vanessa won it in 2019, and his brother Jacob won it in 2016. Like his older siblings, Ryan served as an assistant chaplain at St. Dom’s, a position that includes helping at school Masses and encouraging others students in their faith.

“I knew that the priests always needed help whenever they came, and they didn’t always have a lot of people to help them, so I thought it would be very cool to join something like that and to try to make a little impact,” says Ryan.

Ryan also serves as an usher at Holy Trinity Church in Lisbon Falls, where he also completed his Eagle Scout project. It included repainting parking lot lines, designating new handicapped spaces, and helping to preserve three church bells.

“There were three bells from the previous churches that were there. They were put onto a marble slab, and then I cleaned and polished them up. Then I mulched and planted around them,” says Ryan.

Ryan’s volunteer work has also included assisting the Knights of Columbus and serving at the Lisbon Area Christian Outreach food pantry.

“My parents were involved in it, so I wanted to also join them and get involved in it,” he says. “I had a lot of fun doing it.”

Ryan attributes his desire to serve and his work ethic to the example set by his parents.

“That was something that my parents instilled in me when I was very young, to always have a good work ethic,” he says. “I think it’s important that people work hard, especially in their faith, not just at their job.”

While at St. Dom’s, Ryan was also on the school’s baseball team, which won its third straight state championship in June. He was the manager of the hockey team, and he worked on the school’s yearbook.

Ryan’s aspiration is to become a commercial airline pilot. He is already working on getting his private pilots’ license, and he plans to attend the Florida Institute of Technology in the fall.

Despite those high-flying aspirations, Ryan says he is confident that he will stay grounded in his faith. The university has a Newman Club that he plans to join.

“I think it’s going to help me to meet other people who are like me,” he says. “I already have a church picked out that I’m going to. It’s very close to the school: Our Lady of Lourdes.”

Mimosa will stay in Maine for college. She will attend the University of Southern Maine in Portland and plans to major in business.

“I want to be a real estate agent but also be able to own businesses that give back to the community,” she says. “I love to give to people. Especially when you are that person who was offered so much help, you want to give back all you can.”

Mimosa and her family immigrated from Rwanda. She, her siblings, her father, and her grandfather came to the United States in 2019 as asylum seekers, and her mother joined them later. The family briefly lived in Texas before settling in Maine. Mimosa remembers how difficult the transition was.

“It’s a huge culture shock,” she says. “It’s basically starting a new life with nothing at all.”

It also meant a lot of responsibility for a young teen. She and her siblings, who spoke English, served as translators for their parents. She says it made her keenly aware of the difficulties they were facing.

“Kids my age, they didn’t know how we would have to wait every month to get a voucher and about the breaking down of bills,” she says. “We didn’t have any money in our name.”

Mimosa says school was a struggle at first. Her family arrived here in November 2019, so she started eighth grade late. Then, a few months later, before she had a chance to make many connections, the pandemic led to remote learning.

Although at the time Mimosa says she would have preferred to continue onto South Portland High School after middle school, she says she now feels blessed to have received a full scholarship that allowed her to attend Cheverus.

While it was another tough transition, she says as time went on, she made friends and improved academically. 

“The teachers would always come to you to remind you that ‘I am here for extra help,’ so I think that helped me save my grades, working one on one with the teachers, coming in early to see the teachers, staying late to see the teachers,” she says.

Since she was a child, Mimosa says her mother instilled in her the importance of faith and daily prayer, but she credits Cheverus for helping her to more fully embrace them. Previously an altar server for Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Parish in Portland, she became involved in campus ministry at Cheverus.

“I think that my faith really played a big role here at Cheverus. I participated and led some retreats. I participated in Masses. I was a eucharistic minister on some days. On other days, I was a server,” she says.

She also welcomed other service opportunities, including serving members of the immigrant and refugee community through the Root Cellar in Portland.

“The help you wished you had or the help you received back then, you want to give it to someone in that same situation because you know how it feels. I think that is what most drove me to volunteer with people who help immigrants,” she says. “Being able to help someone, I think, is just the biggest thing in life.”

While at Cheverus, Mimosa was also a member of the Civil Rights Club and the Students of Color Affinity Group. For her Arrupe Project, during which seniors serve at community institutions such as schools and hospitals, she volunteered at an elementary school.

Both Mimosa and Ryan believe their high schools prepared them well for the future.

“Cheverus really put me out of my comfort zone,” says Mimosa. “The workload is not an easy one. I don’t know how I made it through all these four years, but I think having made it through Cheverus these four years, I am definitely going to get through college.”

“St. Dom’s teaches you a good work ethic,” says Ryan. “That is going to help me in college. It’s going to give me an advantage to be able to work hard in college.”