Three Cheers for the Irish Network!

Specifically, the Irish Network New Orleans.

Thanks to them, we four lucky people are headed to Ireland on this wonderful program which we keep going on about.

The Irish Network New Orleans (or IN-NOLA) are, well, a network of people who are either Irish, Irish-American, or simply have connections to Ireland. The network is a New Orleans community made up of those who value Irish culture and want to preserve and promote it in America. What's brilliant is that it's not for only Irish people - anybody can become a member, really: no one is excluded based on individual demographic information. 

That said, none of us four going to Ireland are actually Irish, and only one has traceable Irish ethnic ties. 

It really does make sense though! The network itself is diverse, and so should be the entrants for the scholarship. The only thing they used in order to judge us was our essays: what let us stand out was our minds, not our ethnicities. The policy of inclusion is a solid reiteration of the network's goal to teach everyone, not just Irish people, that Ireland is a cool and worthwhile country.

Because the Irish know that already, and we're certainly going to learn too.

I'm still trying to figure out how to add the IN-NOLA logo and a link to their website in the sidebar, so in the meantime...

For more information, the Irish Network New Orleans website is right here.

The Essays Themselves (updated with LINKS!)

So how'd we earn this trip?

To put it simply, there was an essay contest.

Irish Network New Orleans (IN-NOLA), the local attachment to IN-USA, was offering a scholarship. According to the forwarded email:

This summer, IN-NOLA will be sending some deserving New Orleans high school juniors to University College Dublin to attend a two week summer program designed to show high school students a glimpse of college life in Ireland.

Each of us heard about it different ways (our individual stories are linked below), but the application was the same. The only real requirement was a GPA at or above a 3.0, and the application asked for only some basic contact information. The only way to distinguish ourselves from the rest was the application essay:

"Please tell us in 500 words or less why is the connection between New Orleans and Ireland important in 2013?"

At least they asked politely.

Essentially, we had to convince them that we understood their motive behind sending four high school kids across the pond.

But hey, free trip to Ireland, right?

And so, we took to our keyboards, did a little research, and away we went.

Each of our stories: (not updated yet - still working on it!)

• Alexis
• Erin
• Marisa
• The mysterious Zaire

Each of our essays:

• Alexis
• Erin
• Marisa
• The elusive Zaire: http://fromnolatoucd.blogspot.com/2013/07/zaire-essay_9.html