Her work, taking Saint Michael's College students to tutor refugee youngsters in Champlain Elementary School, was heralded as a life-changing experience by both students and teachers. And it earned Dr. Patricia Delaney, Saint Michael's College Associate Professor of Anthropology, the Paul Harris Fellowship for humanitarian work from the Colchester/Milton Rotary, awarded at their March 17 meeting. Professor Delaney, a former Rotarian herself during her Fulbright days in Tonga, was honored at the Rotary’s literacy month, celebrated in March, at which time she was also the featured speaker.
The Paul Harris Fellowship, named for the man who founded the Rotary in 1905, recognizes individuals whose lives demonstrate a shared purpose with Rotary to build world understanding and peace.
In presenting the award, Dr. Delaney was recognized because her “commitment to developing Peace Corps programs in Indonesia and her work and her students’ work with the Champlain School project here in Burlington are wonderful examples of a personal and professional life built around serving and educating young people toward a more peaceful and cooperative world.”
Professor Delaney, who is both a researcher and an applied practitioner, has taken students to Hawaii, New Orleans, India, Brazil and Cuba, and has mentored Peace Corps volunteers in East Timor and Tonga. Her Ph.D. in Anthropology is from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service is from Georgetown University. She is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, working in Brazil in 1993-94, and in East Timor in 2006.
One of her Saint Michael’s students, whom she directed in teaching Somali Bantu children at Champlain Elementary, said, “I’ve learned more coming here than I ever could by just sitting in a college lecture hall, even though I love my on-campus classes too.”