Session I: May 10th – 24th

Session II: May 25th of May – June 8th

In this site-specific offering of Intro to Painting, we will explore and document the Irish landscape, environs, and people of Dingle. Students will be provided a watercolor pad and watercolor kit to document their unique experience of Dingle through pictures and words, in a visual journal. The produced work will be catalogued and exhibited at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT in the semesters following the program.  

The basic and essential skills of painting will be covered through demonstrations of landscape, portraits, and scene painting. The writing component will be explored through reflections, poetry, interviews, and/or essays. No previous painting experience is necessary. Let’s make art!

Heritage tourism offers experiences that involve visiting and engaging with places, artifacts, activities, and cultures. These experiences seek to authentically represent the past from multiple perspectives. Dingle, Ireland (in Irish – Daingean Uí Chúis) dates back over 6000 years, making it a prime location for heritage tourism. In order to create an authentic experience, it is not enough to just be a passive observer. Visitors want to immerse themselves in a rich, cultural experience by going to a deeper level, below the surface of a destination.

By integrating history and culture with cutting-edge technology in immersive environments, we can both preserve heritage, and enrich the visitor experience and engagement with history. This course explores the potential for emerging technology such as artificial intelligence, robots, Internet of Things, and augmented/virtual reality to create immersive, memorable, tourism experiences, particularly related to heritage tourism in Ireland.

Learn how communication impacts practitioners/client interaction, patient outcomes, health education, social support for patients, and those who care for them, and ways that communication impacts interprofessional health care team dynamics.

Discover how culture impacts both patients and providers. Explore how health communication varies between Irish and U.S. healthcare systems.

This course, based in the Gaeltacht region of West Kerry, compares the education system in Ireland with that of the United States. Topics addressed include curriculum and instruction, funding and governance, teacher preparation, multiculturalism, language policy, and contemporary school reform. Student will be introduced to the students and teachers of Dingle, Ireland and experience the Irish education system up-close and personal. You will observe classrooms in action, learn from Irish teachers and administrators, and meet teacher candidates and their professors.

Open to all students in FCE teacher preparation programs, the course counts in lieu of Education in the United States, Multicultural Education, or an MAT elective. ED 402 for undergraduate credit or ED 502 for graduate credit.

During this course, students will have the opportunity to fully explore the importance of the Gaelic sports to both the regional and national identity. This exploration will begin with the roots of Gaelic sports and culminate with a contemporary discussion of Irish sports in today’s environment. Students will integrate their exercise science (EX) background to survey the Gaelic sports from a physiological, biomechanical, psychological and coaching framework drawing comparisons to American-based sports.

Student groups will research, develop and implement a comprehensive athlete assessment with the local Gaelic Athletic Association club. Guest speakers and participation in the Irish Sports will supplement traditional lectures.

This course covers the psychological, biological, cognitive, social and emotional changes that occur throughout the human lifespan. It includes pre-natal stages through death and dying. Students will be introduced to both classic and new and emerging theories of development as they gain an understanding of the dynamic inter-relatedness and relationship between biology and environment in human growth and development.

Tourism has become increasingly popular in the rural Dingle Peninsula, with some large cruise ships stopping in the tiny Dingle harbor. With this popularity comes a fresh slate of problems. How can the crowds be managed in the town and at tourist sites? How can the people of Dingle more equitably share in the benefits of tourism? How are climate change, tourism, and the peninsula connected?

Students will take a hands-on approach to the data science cycle from start to finish. They will learn about data collection, obtain data through observations and interviews with local Dingle residents and the Chamber of Commerce, master the basics of the R statistical environment to analyze data and look for patterns, and work in teams to communicate the results. Students in any major with an interest in data will enjoy and benefit from this course.

This course introduces the student to basic concepts, theories, and methods of exploring the health, wellness, and cultural diversity of individuals. Common factors that promote the health and wellness of individuals across the lifespan are explored. Cultural diversity expands this discussion to include the meaning and impact of culture on health and wellness through the exploration of cultural phenomena such as perception toward time, communication, social organization, and healing traditions.

Values clarification related to one’s own culture as a part of the process of developing cultural awareness and competence is discussed. Disparities related to access to care and economic barriers are discussed including vulnerable populations.

This course will serve as an introduction to the fascinating world of sport business and international marketing. Students will work on an innovative group marketing plan for a professional sports team from the Dingle and County Kerry region of Ireland. Additionally, students will interact with and visit a local school in Dingle.

The stark contrast between Irish and American sports leagues will be identified and discussed. A strong focus will be placed upon both of the following: 1) marketing “of” various sports and sport products, and 2) marketing “through” sport – the latter of which will involve the use of sport as the vehicle to market non-sport products and services.

The course includes site visits to related businesses, and key sport figures in Ireland will be brought into the class as guest speakers to supplement the course material.

Spend 2 weeks learning about ethical issues in health care by exploring compelling scenarios and case-studies. Study the role of ethics and the importance of Philosophy to the Irish Catholic Intellectual Tradition and investigate how health care concerns impact the lives of patients and health-care providers throughout southwestern Ireland.

Among the central topics to be covered include informed consent, medical futility, reproductive ethics, privacy, cultural competence, and clinical trials.

Engaging with Irish preschoolers, visiting the aquarium and creating enrichment activities for the animals, participating in a Celtic Cub Scavenger Hunt, immersing yourself in meditation in an Irish forest during Shinrin-Yoku and being exposed to Irish music and language through guest speakers and excursions.

These are just some of the experiences you will have in this course which offers an applied approach to understanding neuroscience, the intersection between psychology and biology. Students will examine key concepts in neuroscience including neuroplasticity, language acquisition, learning, stress, and environmental enrichment in applied settings.

In addition, it introduces students to fundamental claims of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition; enable students to understand that Tradition as characterized by open, rigorous intellectual inquiry in the context of a faith tradition; engage students and faculty in seminar discussion; and enable students to see the value of this Tradition in the contemporary world help develop students’ reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Learn about human diversity and social justice through a comparative, global lens in Dingle, Ireland. Possible experiences integrated into the course will be visits with community members to highlight experiences of diversity and social justice, as well as the John Moriarty Institute for Ecology and Spirituality. This course provides a framework for understanding how diversity characteristics shape the human experience and are critical to the formation of identity. The dimensions of diversity can be understood as the intersection of multiple factors and, because of difference, a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege, power, and acclaim. This course includes the integration of a social justice and human rights perspective in line with the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Students will develop beginning skills in assessing and intervening in macro practice that addresses social inequities, oppression, and equitable access to resources.

This short course looks at Irish drama and spirituality through experimental and site-specific performance. Can we still believe that land and spirit can be wild with us? We will explore how stories, improvisation, and ritual can teach us, in the words of the Irish ecological mystic John Moriarty, to “walk beautifully on the earth” in Dingle and back at home. Ritual and performance—from a celebration of the Catholic Mass to a night at the pub after seeing a play—can “re-wild” our spirits in relationship to the natural world and each other. But how should we name and tell stories about our shared earth, what Pope Francis calls “our common home”?

This unique course introduces the theory and practice of site-specific ritual and theatre by taking place amid the drama of waves, mountains, people, and stories of your journey to Ireland and back. We will read and discuss some major Irish plays (including Once) about naming spirits of the land, rediscover the Gospels and Jesus’ seaside storytelling through performance analysis, talk with local artists, theatre-makers, and dancers in the West of Ireland, embody some wisdom from the Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Irish context of natural beauty, and learn how to re-wild our own play with ritualizing and improvisation.

Participants will work together to develop an original performance inspired by their time in Dingle, but no previous acting experience is required.

This experiential and immersive course explores the fascinating and curious relationship between Irish monasticism, the monastic phenomenon of pilgrimage, and the history of Irish brewing and distillation of spirits (alcohol). It considers the origins and development of early medieval Irish monasticism, focusing primarily on the Irish monastic practice of pilgrimage, and the role Irish monastic pilgrimages play in development and history of Irish brewing and distillation of spirits. Students enrolled in this engaging course will listen to guest speakers, visit Ardfert Monastery and Muckross Abbey, tour Dingle Distillery and Dick Mack’s Brewery, and walk The Saint’s Way, in addition to normal course reading, discussion, and activities.