A student from Ohio who says she came to University of Limerick to study for a Masters has “left with a PhD and a husband”.
Cleveland’s Meredith Storey, who received her PhD at the Winter Conferring in UL this week, says her time studying at UL was a “life changing and an unbelievable experience”.
The newly minted Dr Storey was one of 10 PhD students graduating from the Kemmy Business School (KBS) at UL – the school’s highest number ever in one week and the most amount of female PhD recipients from the KBS in a single week, with graduates from Ireland, America, the Middle East, India and the UK.
Pic Sean Curtin True Media.
Meredith met a Limerick man while studying at UL and married him last Thursday, just days before her PhD award this Monday.
“I came to UL for a Masters and left with a PhD and a husband, it certainly was life changing and an unbelievable experience. Who would have thought,” she laughed.
Coming to UL to study a Masters in International Business and Global Management in August 2013 was the start of the amazing journey for the Ohio-born student.
“I finished my Masters in 2015 and right at the end of that I started my PhD with the same supervisor, and that was amazing,” she explained.
“The first summer was spent in UL as a teaching assistant but then I went to New York to work for nine months at the United Nations through the Principles for Responsible Management Initiative which Kemmy Business School is a leading member in.
“I came back then to finish my PhD.”
Meredith’s love for UL graduated into matters of the heart when she met her future husband on campus.
Corbally man Dr Ian Houlihan, a post-doctoral researcher with the School of Engineering at UL, said that he met Meredith in May 2015 by chance as their paths were unlikely to cross in different faculties.
“It was actually pot luck that the stars aligned,” Ian laughed.
The couple met just before Meredith left for New York but stayed in touch.
“Ever since then we have been hanging out and going strong,” Meredith said as she revealed the couple married last Thursday in front of over 100 guests in the West Clare village of Doolin.
“It is crazy that we were able to get so many people together from so many different places into one room, family, staff from UL who are now friends and people from the US – it is some memory to have made,” she added.
At the conferring ceremonies this week, Dr Christine Cross, Acting Executive Dean of the KBS, congratulated students graduating from the business school – which was awarded AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation in 2019, joining the top 5% of international business schools recognised by AACSB International (AACSB) for demonstrating excellence in teaching, research, curriculum development and student learning.
“You have graduated from one of Ireland’s leading business schools with a reputation for providing a first class business education and one of the top 5% of international business schools, designed to prepare graduates for successful and rewarding careers,” said Dr Cross.
“Think about your parchment as your passport to the next chapter in what you choose to do. It is a high quality passport. I hope that it enables you to succeed in what you choose to do next and that you use it well,” she added.
