Shire Announces 2015 Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship Recipients
Lexington, MA (PRWEB) July 16, 2015 -- Intended for U.S. Audience Only – Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2015 Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship. Now in its fifth year, the annual program provides scholarship tuition assistance and coaching services to a group of award recipients in the United States living with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) who are pursuing higher education at a college/university or vocational /technical school. Fifty-five award recipients have been selected from over 2,000 applicants across the United States. Since the program’s inception, Shire has awarded a total of 243 scholarships to deserving recipients.
“The Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship is part of Shire’s patient-centric approach that provides support to patients with ADHD and their caregivers,” said Perry Sternberg, head of Shire’s Neuroscience Business Unit. “We have doubled the number of scholarships provided since the program’s inception, and it is an honor for the Shire team to help these individuals pursue their academic goals with tuition assistance and ADHD coaching services.”
As a part of the scholarship application process, applicants completed an essay explaining how ADHD has impacted their lives and submitted letters of recommendation. Additional award selection criteria included involvement in community service and volunteer and extracurricular activities.
“I am constantly impressed with the caliber of the content in the applications that we review,” said Carol Caruso, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Pennsylvania Montgomery County. “We are very fortunate to have so many bright and talented individuals apply for this scholarship program. We applaud Shire’s ongoing commitment to providing much needed support for students with ADHD.”
The Shire ADHD Scholarship includes a $2,000 monetary award and a prepaid year of ADHD coaching services from the Edge Foundation, which includes weekly sessions with trained ADHD coaches. The students set weekly goals and action plans to meet those goals and have e-mail and phone support from their coaches to help keep them on track in their pursuit of higher education. The Edge Foundation is a Seattle-based non-profit organization that offers support for students with ADHD. The Edge Foundation’s primary mission is to provide access to qualified, professional coaches for students with ADHD as part of their multimodal treatment program.
In 2014, Shire re-named its annual ADHD Scholarship Program in memory of the late Michael Yasick, a former senior executive at Shire whose vision made the program possible. Mr. Yasick was inspired by the thousands of high school seniors, college students, and adults pursuing higher education, despite suffering from ADHD. He envisioned the scholarship program as a way to recognize the brave individuals who work hard to overcome the challenges of the disorder and help them continue their educational pursuits.
The 2015 Michael Yasick ADHD Scholarship recipients are: Kathryn Bandru of Pennsylvania, Jillian Blackhall of Kansas, Emalee Cantlin of Michigan, Hayley Cottle of Georgia, Courtney Dotson of Arkansas, Roxanna Fridman of Massachusetts, Patrick Gant of Alabama, Sarah Gibson of Maryland, Jonathan Glennon of Massachusetts, Kirsten Green of Georgia, Dan Grossman of Pennsylvania, Macie-Grace Guthrie of Texas, Shelbey Hagen of Wisconsin, Mackinzie Hamilton of Utah, Ali Kanan of Minnesota, Janna Koffman of Georgia, Nathan Kueshner of Kentucky, David Lester of Florida, Mark McCorkle of California, Sarah McCune of Illinois, Matthew Mcketty of Florida, Madeline Moeller of Indiana, Jonah Morin of Indiana, Jeremy Nowell of Virginia, Mitchell Pliska of Indiana, Erin Przybyla of Maryland, Lane Quick of Kansas, Celestia Randolph of North Carolina, Dante Ricks of California, Catharine Riddle of North Carolina, Lisa Rueger of Georgia, Thomas Ryan of Kentucky, Megan Schilling of Alabama, Kailey Snead of Texas, Emma Stotts of Minnesota, Catherine Sumner of Georgia, Jennifer Trevorrow of Michigan, Emma Vasil of Texas, Kara Vrooman of Kentucky, Adon Wade-Currie of Massachusetts, Brittani Waltenburg of Georgia, Walter Yang of Massachusetts.
Please visit http://www.ShireADHDscholarship.com to learn more about the program.
About ADHD
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is a neurobehavioral disorder that manifests as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development and is inconsistent with developmental level.
ADHD is one of the most common childhood psychiatric disorders. An estimated 11 percent (6.4 million) of US school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD in their lifetime, based on the 2011/12 National Survey of Children’s Health, in which parents were asked if a health care practitioner had ever told them their child had ADD or ADHD. Although many people tend to think of ADHD as a childhood problem, 60% to 85% of children with ADHD may continue to meet the criteria for the disorder during their teenage years. Nearly 50% of children with ADHD may continue to meet the criteria for the disorder in adulthood, based on parent report. The disorder is estimated to affect 4.4 percent of US adults aged 18 to 44 based on results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. When this percentage is extrapolated to the full US population aged 18 and over, approximately 10 million adults are estimated to have ADHD. Drug treatment may not be appropriate for all patients with ADHD.
The specific etiology of ADHD is unknown. The diagnosis is made utilizing criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, (DSM-5®) or International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10). Only a trained health care professional can evaluate and diagnose ADHD.
Standard treatments include educational approaches, psychological therapies which may include behavioral modification, and/or medication.
For further information please contact:
Scott Santiamo
ssantiamo(at)npsp(dot)com
+1 908-450-5599
Charlotte Zang
czang(at)benchworks(dot)com
+1 410-810-8862
NOTES TO EDITORS
Shire enables people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives.
Our strategy is to focus on developing and marketing innovative specialty medicines to meet significant unmet patient needs.
We focus on providing treatments in Neuroscience, Rare Diseases, Gastrointestinal and Internal Medicine and we are developing treatments for symptomatic conditions treated by specialist physicians in other targeted therapeutic areas, such as Ophthalmics.
Charlotte Zang, Benchworks, http://www.benchworks.com, +1 (410) 810-8862, [email protected]
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