Introducing the Northern Irish PGs

Ethan Zhu ’26 in News | October 6, 2023

This year, through the Protégé for Peace program, Lawrenceville is hosting two Post-Graduates from Northern Ireland—Victoria Maguire ’24 and Lucy Browne ’24. Irish Scholars is a selective program based in Northern Ireland that gives two students who have just graduated high school the opportunity to spend a gap year at Lawrenceville on scholarship. Maguire and Browne were chosen after a lengthy nomination, interview, and application process.

“It was a bit of a big shock for me because I initially had no intention of moving a large distance for school,” Maguire said, having originally planned on attending a university in England. However, after being nominated for the program, Maguire knew instantly that “it was such a good opportunity, especially when [she] looked online and explored Lawrenceville, its resources, its community, and its campus life itself.”

At Lawrenceville, Maguire seeks to share new experiences with her peers and develop new skills. Through the program, she has the opportunity to spend another year taking “classes that [she] is specifically interested in,” and “seeing if pharmaceutical sciences [was not] the only course that piqued [her] interest.”

For Maguire, Lawrenceville has been a “wonderful experience” so far. Though she was initially apprehensive about experiencing a “whole different way of life” and not being able to find a sense of belonging in a new environment, Maguire has found the Lawrenceville community to be “really welcoming and helpful.” “On the first day, I was never lost [because] there was always someone to show me the way to class,” she said, “I didn’t expect it to be so large and lively, either…I’m never bored, and there’s always something new.”

Apart from her appreciation for the diverse community and vibrant campus life, Maguire noted that her favorite part of Lawrenceville was its class structure. She loves the Harkness system and enjoys “being able to not just sit behind a desk every day and listen to the teacher talk, but instead participating in the conversation and listening to others’ opinions.”

Browne, on the other hand, had “always been interested in attending an American university.” The Protégé for Peace program gave her the opportunity to make her dreams a reality, which she was “incredibly excited” about. Like Maguire, Browne had already been accepted into a European university, but said she could not pass up this “amazing opportunity” to study abroad. At Lawrenceville, she hopes to learn in a new environment and immerse herself in a new culture while “gaining some advantage to [her] career when applying to jobs.”

Browne noted that Lawrenceville is “very different” from her school in Ireland, and that “it’s really got something special.” In particular, she “[loves] the layout of the school and the teaching style, especially Harkness.” “In other schools, it’s more like one person dominates, one person doesn’t say anything, and one person just can’t be bothered to say anything…here, it’s completely different,” Browne said.

Both Maguire and Browne feel that they have found an inclusive community and a “home away from home” at Lawrenceville. “As much as I am homesick, it’s been one of the best times of my life, and it’s only been a month,” Maguire said. Browne echoed a similar sentiment, noting that “[Lawrenceville] has definitely exceeded my expectations, and I’m so happy that it has.”

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Menu

Introducing the Northern Irish PGs