Building on its existing study abroad program in Ireland, Sacred Heart University has announced a partnership with an Irish aquarium to supplement its coastal research and academic programs.
For years, faculty and students at Sacred Heart have studied the Long Island Sound, including its contaminants, horseshoe crab migration and rising sea levels. Now, the group will be able to compare the Sound, surrounded by a heavy urban population, with the rural Ireland coast, virtually untouched by humans in comparison.
John Rapaglia, a Sacred Heart assistant professor of marine science who is coordinating the new program with the Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium in Dingle, Ireland, said the school will be one of very few universities to have an international center for research.
“International collaboration is invaluable,” he said. “It opens up many doors that will likely lead to more research projects for other professors and students. There is very little reason to not do something like this.”
In his own career, Rapaglia has done groundwater and marine science research in Germany and Italy. By partnering with the Dingle aquarium, the school could make further progress on learning how to better protect fish and shellfish from pollutants and how to harness tides as a source of energy.
Sacred Heart, a Catholic university, has more than 6,000 students at its Fairfield campus.
In May, a dozen students will begin studying at the aquarium in classes taught by both Sacred Heart professors and marine biology experts at the Dingle aquarium, representing the first group to participate in the collaboration. The program will be in addition to Sacred Heart”™s 10-year-old Irish and Celtic study abroad program, held at the school”™s Dingle campus.
Gerald Reid, director of Sacred Heart”™s Center for Irish Cultural Studies, said the university during the past three years has greatly expanded its programs on the campus and is now expanding its science offerings.
“This is something that is very unusual for a small liberal arts university, to have this kind of research opportunity in an international context,” Reid said. “This is a really unique opportunity for our students. It”™s also an opportunity to study abroad and have the benefit of studying abroad in another culture and in another part of the world.”
Later, the school hopes to establish student internships at the aquarium and to develop a permanent biological monitoring station in Dingle.
Other study abroad programs on the Dingle campus include Irish and Celtic history, culture, language, literature, media studies, business, health professions, music, politics, religion and society. Next year education courses will also be offered. About 90 students enroll in each semester of the study abroad program.
“These courses that we operate are all very experiential,” said Reid, also the associate dean of Sacred Heart”™s College of Arts and Sciences. “There is an important classroom component but they also have an experiential component. It”™s not just learning about biology in the classroom. They will also be out on the field, on the water, on the coastline, learning in a very practical and hands-on way.”
