-- Newport Native Conor Bohan '86, who founded Haiti's largest university scholarship program –
Portsmouth Abbey School Headmaster Daniel McDonough has announced that Conor Bohan, a member of the Portsmouth Abbey Class of 1986 and the founder and executive director of the Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP), will be the School's 86th Commencement Speaker, on Sunday, May 29.
Since graduating from Portsmouth Abbey in 1986, Bohan has worked in the USA, England, France, Italy and Haiti, as a commercial fisherman, short-order cook, house painter, bartender, hotel receptionist, carpenter, teacher, sports coach and international development manager. In 1996, as a volunteer high school teacher in Haiti, he gave a graduating student $30 so that she could register for the local medical school entrance exam. That gesture was the origin of HELP, a comprehensive merit- and needs-based scholarship program that has since sent hundreds of top-performing Haitian students to university and, subsequently, into Haiti's workforce. HELP's mission is to create, through its scholarship program, a community of young professionals and leaders who will promote a more just society in Haiti.
In addition to their professional success, HELP students and graduates have formed their own civic associations, including Haiti's first-ever pan-university student association. Today HELP is recognized as a model scholarship program for first-generation college students and has been featured in The New York Times, America's Quarterly magazine and at the Clinton Global Initiative. Bohan, originally from Newport, RI, is a graduate of Brown University, an Ashoka Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and was named one of the Hemisphere's Innovators by America's Quarterly magazine.
"I am delighted to have my former math student return to the School as our Commencement Speaker," said McDonough. "Conor's trajectory since leaving Portsmouth Abbey has been incredible to witness, and his commitment to the youth of Haiti is truly a story worth sharing."
"Over the years I have come to realize what a tremendous advantage a good education is in accomplishing anything," said Bohan. "Portsmouth Abbey provided me that first-rate education and, equally importantly, the values that inspire me to provide that same education to others, so I'm honored to return, 30 years later, to share my experience with the Class of 2016."
Portsmouth Abbey's 86th Commencement Exercises will take place Sunday, May 29, on the School's Holy Lawn at 11:30 a.m.