Palermo Founders Fund
The Patrick F. Palermo Honors Program Founders Fund
The Palermo Founders Fund was established in 2004 and provides annual support for Honors students undertaking Honors Thesis projects that involve international research, service and leadership in the community, or which advance the realization of a just society. All of these are characteristics of the University’s distinctive approach to enhanced higher education in the Catholic and Marianist tradition. The endowed Dr. Patrick F. Palermo Honors Program Founders Fund is an example of the generosity of our alumni.
Fellowships that are awarded from this Fund are determined during the Honors Thesis Research Proposal and Fellowship Application process each year.
2022 Fellowship Recipients
Congratulations to the 2022 Palermo Founders Fund fellowship recipients Patrick Hoody, Kevin O'Gorman, and David Quick
Patrick Hoody
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Title: Triple Hybrid Power Plant and Desalination Plant Potential in Caribbean Small Island Developing States
"This research will be analyzing the potential for triple hybrid power plants to be built in Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS). A triple hybrid power plant is a power plant that uses geothermal power, solar PV, and concentrating solar (CSP). The triple hybrid plant will specifically be analyzed to show flexibility for multiple clean energy options for different nations."
Kevin O'Gorman
Majors: History / Religious Studies
Title: Living on a Prayer: Religious Orders and Protestant Theology in Early Reformation Switzerland
"Through examination of communications of vowed religious and interactions with the secular authorities, I will examine how the charisms and traditions of Swiss religious congregations impacted their understanding of Protestant theologies during the early Reformation and what role that played in their decisions regarding dissolution."
David Quick
Majors: Human Rights Studies / Philosophy
Title: The Ontologica Reduction of Workers of Neoliberalism: Neoliberal Development and Worker Subjectivity
"This thesis documents and analyzes the lived experiences of agricultural workers in rural communities of El Salvador in a compilation of field notes from the summer of 2022. These workers' stories describe their relationships to themselves, their work, and their communities in the context of conditions characteristic of the latest stage of capitalism. This version of capitalism, called neoliberalism, combines the economic and the political realms into a cohesive ideology that is contingent upon the subordination of individuals and collectives to the power and will of a small group of elites. Geographically, this pervasive ideology keeps the Global North rich and the Global South poor."