Hastings College announced that five students have been selected to participate in its Irish Fellows program and spend three weeks in Ireland this spring conducting research they proposed as part of the Irish Fellows application process.
The College’s new block schedule allows students to complete an Irish history course in Block 4, which is seven weeks long and begins in January, before traveling to County Clare, Ireland, for Block 5 plus spring break. This will give students three weeks in-country to complete their research — without having to worry about completing assignments for and keeping up with other classes on campus.
In previous years, students would take a semester-long Irish History course and spend a month in Ireland — while also having to keep up their three or four other classes.
“Irish Fellows remains a unique and extraordinary undergraduate program, and we have managed to retain its distinct features in the new block schedule,” said Dr. Rob Babcock, a Hastings College history professor and advisor of the program. “Students will learn any number of academic- and life-skills through the entire process, from project proposal to research to publication or presentation. They do so with significant guidance and mentoring, but ultimately, they do so on their own, in a foreign country.”
In partnership with Davy Spillane, Grammy Award-winning Irish musician, Hastings College sponsors the program to allow students to blend coursework with independent study while in County Clare, a region in the west of Ireland offering remarkable educational and opportunities.
The 2019-20 Irish Fellowship recipients include:
- Samantha Burke, a communication studies major from Denver, Colorado, studying “A Cross-Cultural Rhetorical Analysis of Mass Media.”
- Delaney Feezell, a studio art major from Hastings, Nebraska, studying “One is All: The Climate Crisis in Ireland and Beyond.”
- Emma Redinger, a communication studies major from Hastings, Nebraska, studying “Hear me out: How Cultural Disparity Contributes to the Debate Surrounding the Gaelic Language.”
- Morgan Stromer, a studio art major from Bladen, Nebraska, studying “Preservation of Curiosity: Curiosity Cabinets in Ireland and England.”
- Mackenzie Waltemath, a business administration major from Omaha, Nebraska, studying “Comparing Non-Profit Atmospheres in the United States and the Republic of Ireland.”
Nebraska’s premier private college, Hastings College is a four-year institution located in Hastings, Nebraska, that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement. Hastings College has been named among “Great Schools, Great Prices” by U.S. News & World Report and a “Best in the Midwest” by The Princeton Review. For more, go to hastings.edu.
