A $7,500 grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in New York City will help fund the fall 2023 Irish Fellows program, the Hastings College Foundation announced.
Irish Fellows, initiated in 2007, allows Hastings College students to spend a month in Ireland conducting independent research and exploring historic and cultural sites. Students for the program are selected through a competitive process.
“We are grateful to the Delmas Foundation for this and the previous seven grants they have awarded to this unique undergraduate program,” said Dr. Rob Babcock, director of Irish Fellows and professor of history. “Irish Fellows gain so many different academic and life skills from this experience — academic skills such as research and writing but also life skills like the increased self-confidence and self-awareness that comes from exploring the world beyond the Great Plains. The Delmas Foundation’s support affirms, on a national level, the significance of our program.”
The College sponsors Irish Fellows in cooperation with Davy Spillane, a Grammy Award-winning Irish musician and College friend who opens his home in County Clare as an educational center for students. Fellows stay in the village of Lahinch, travel to Dublin, and gather information related to their independent research topics. After returning to campus, they complete their projects in the form of a research paper or academic presentation.
Nearly 80 students have participated in Irish Fellows since the program’s inception.
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, established in 1976, encourages excellence in scholarship and the performing arts and promotes the advancement of humanistic inquiry. The Foundation’s programs reflect the major interests of its late founders, Gladys Krieble Delmas and Jean Paul Delmas, including support for the humanities, research libraries, scholars in Venice and the performing arts in New York City.
