Contact:
Mike Ferlazzo
570-577-3212
570-238-6266 (c)
mike.ferlazzo@bucknell.edu
LEWISBURG, Pa. (September 3, 2026) – At the beginning of Ibby New ’29’s internship with the Office of General Counsel at Catholic University of America, she was given a substantial project that required her to put to use all the critical thinking and research skills that she’d been building as a history major.
“I was tasked with doing land acquisition research for the Catholic University of America, which has been in existence since 1887,” says New, who was connected to the position through Allison Prince ’80. “In that time, they’ve expanded a lot, but they haven’t had a meticulously organized system that tells them how particular plots of land were acquired, which can be a roadblock to campus planning.”
Relying on skills in map analysis that she gained from an Early America course taught by Professor Claire Campbell, history, New spent her summer creating a chronological list of records to track the campus’s growth, which often involved doing archival research in the University’s archives as well as the National Archives and People’s Archive.
As someone who grew up in Alexandria, Va., New already had some familiarity with Washington, D.C. However, the Hamill Experience showed her another side of the city — and herself. “Living in D.C. by myself has been a great exercise in stepping out of my comfort zone and making social connections,” she says. “And being here as a cohort with other Bucknell students offered a strong system of support for navigating this new experience.”
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