Conor Feeney is the 2017 recipient of the Rev. John M. Conlisk Irish Scholarship.
Before graduating from the University of Limerick in 2016, Conor Feeney received an e-mail from his alma mater about a scholarship opportunity at ¶¶Òô»ÆƬapp. At first he was skeptical. “I thought it was too good to be true,” Feeney said. However, after carefully re-reading the letter, scanning for typos and other signs of digital phishing scams, he decided that the program was legitimate and immediately applied.
To be fair, the Conlisk scholarship is almost too good to be true. When the economy in Ireland was struggling 26 years ago, a group of concerned Irish Americans led by Fairfield trustee Kevin M. Conlisk ’66 established the scholarship to give opportunity to promising Irish business students. Named in honor of the late Rev. John M. Conlisk, Kevin Conlisk’s brother who served the diocese of Bridgeport, the scholarship was designed to cover full tuition, housing, and medical insurance for a graduate student from Ireland each year.
This year that promising student is Conor Feeney who began pursuing his master’s in Business Analytics at the Charles F. Dolan School of Business this semester. After a short time in the United States, Feeney already plans on staying in the U.S. after graduation.
“It’s a great time in my life to do some exploring,” he said, adding, “I’ve always wanted to live in New York City.” However, he does plan to visit home. In a few weeks he will head back to Ireland to take his Black Belt exam in Shotokan karate. Since being at Fairfield he’s joined the Martial Arts club to practice and share his love of the sport with like-minded students.
In addition to karate, Feeney is passionate about the world of business analytics. He spent a year with Accenture in the UK following an internship he had with the company while studying math at the University of Limerick. In the future, Feeney hopes to use his master’s degree in the world of medical analytics.
By Erika Jensen ’18
