Delaney Kenney ’25 is Haverford’s First-Ever FAO Schwarz Fellow

When she says goodbye to Haverford after Commencement, Delaney Kenney ’25 will return to her native New England in pursuit of a professional life that melds her passions for science education and communication. Supported by the FAO Schwarz Fellowship, Kenney, a neuroscience major and museum studies and psychology minor, will step into a two-year, full-time position at Boston’s Museum of Science. 

The fellowship, provided by the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation, pairs recent college graduates seeking to spur social change with leading nonprofit organizations in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. In Boston, Kenney, the first Ford to ever receive the fellowship, will collaborate with the museum’s educators on youth programming, including a summer internship initiative and community partnerships with neighborhood schools. She’ll also help coordinate in-gallery learning experiences for museum visitors and plan a large-scale event.

"The Museum of Science is thrilled to welcome an FAO Schwarz Fellow to our team of educators. Our fellows work directly with schools, families, and public audiences of all ages, helping to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders,” says museum President Tim Ritchie. 

Kenney’s atypical journey through science has been shaped by her academic curiosity and a desire to make STEM topics accessible to everyone. Since her junior year of high school, she’s participated in research internships in biology, neuroscience, and psychology labs. But despite her passion for the material, she found herself feeling isolated in the lab environment.

Last summer, participating in the Gates Summer Internship Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus opened her eyes to a new possibility. Alongside the stem cell research she conducted to help those living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that Kenney herself was diagnosed with in 2023, she spent a significant amount of time discussing her work in poster presentations, research talks, and even a podcast. 

“I thought that maybe I just hadn’t found my own research niche yet. Eventually, I realized that maybe the lab wasn’t the place where I could make the impact I wanted,” she says. “The experience I had in Colorado made me realize that communication could be the best angle for me to pursue science.”

Her new path further crystallized during a visit to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where she met museum scientists and educators for the first time. That led her to enroll in her first museum studies course at Bryn Mawr when she returned to campus. An internship at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, where she worked in youth programming, followed. 

Kenney, who has run her own tutoring service, Guilford Tutoring, for middle and high school students since 2020, is particularly enthusiastic about the role museums play in introducing young people to science. “They are some of the most prominent informal education spaces,” she says. “They make learning fun and can supplement the foundational concepts that might be missing from kids’ formal education.”

As her post-College life approaches, Kenney says the fellowship is the perfect next step, and notes that she learned about the opportunity during career-exploration conversations with staff at Haverford’s Center for Career and Professional Advising. 

“They said it was a perfect fit for me, and they were so right,” she says. “I'm excited to get started.”