Salve Regina, Mary Immaculate College officials meet to bolster international collaboration

Dr. Eugene Wall, president of Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, Ireland, visited Salve Regina’s campus today to celebrate a St. Patrick’s Day lunch and to engage in talks to bolster the college’s multi-pronged academic partnership with Salve Regina, a collaboration formally established between the two mercy institutions in 2007.

Joining with Dr. Wall and Holly Cowman, MIC’s director of international engagement, were Salve Regina representatives Dr. Kelli J. Armstrong, president; Dr. Nancy Schreiber, provost/vice president for academic affairs; and Erin Fitzsgerald, director of the Center for Global Education and Fellowships.

“As we come out of the pandemic, this opening up of society has really been great for us,” Dr. Wall said. “It has allowed us to come to the United States, and it has allowed us to come here today. We’ve just had an enormously interesting time sharing different perspectives on education in our two countries and the mercy tradition in our two institutions. We’ve found a lot in common, and we plan to continue to develop that.”

Following the 2007 signing of a Memorandum of Understanding/Bilateral Exchange Agreement between MIC and Salve Regina, six MIC students studied on Salve Regina’s Newport, Rhode Island, campus between 2008 and 2014. The exchange agreement was revitalized in 2014, and since that time between two and four students have exchanged in both directions each academic year.

MIC hosted Salve Regina’s two-week summer program in nursing in 2019, and in May 2022, 15 nursing students will be traveling to Ireland — along with two Salve Regina faculty for a program coordinated by MIC and the University of Limerick’s nursing department. In addition to attending lectures, the Salve Regina contingency will visit healthcare and community organizations, including the Mercy Mission in Limerick, Ireland, and Mercy International House in Dublin, Ireland.

“We’re so blessed by this sister relationship across the ocean with Mary Immaculate College,” Dr. Armstrong said. “The fact that our students are welcome in this exchange and that we share these common values is deeply meaningful. We’re thrilled to have this visit here today on St. Patrick’s Day.”

Future collaborations between Salve Regina and MIC are aimed at bolstering existing student exchange and short-term study abroad relationships. Faculty in Salve Regina’s education department have expressed interest in developing collaborative research with MIC faculty, and synergies between both institutions’ graduate programs for research and project-based residencies are being explored.

Founded in 1898, Mary Immaculate College is a multi-campus liberal arts institution that is academically linked with the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland. The college enrolls more than 5,000 students in a variety of undergraduate programs in primary and post-primary education, liberal arts, and early childhood care and education — with degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels.