David Berber (2001) and his business partner plan to set up a tent city for 10,000 footbal fans in Poznan, Poland for the European Football Championships. For more details read the article featured in "The Irish Independent" on Saturday, 28th January 2012.
[Image: http://foodlorists.blogspot.com/]
Hello again students and teachers of Stratford College, it's been an agonizing 3 months without those familiar walls and faces, but also very eventful to say the least! I've almost completed my first semester in DCU now, and it's hard to comprehend just how fast time has passed upon my arrival here. Believe me Sixth Years when I say you are compensated for all those overwhelmingly slow evenings studying in the weeks up to the Leaving Cert. By Freshman year you will definitely be regretting wishing the year away.
Something a lot of us 'alumni' regret is how we didn't cherish our final year in Stratford. Plenty of us, myself included, let the Leaving Certificate itself become a cloud that constantly followed us around, chastising us if we ever forgot about it's looming presence for a moment. At the time, we felt trapped, perhaps even a little guilty if we had fun instead of intense study sessions. But now, in hindsight, Sixth Year was one of the most enjoyable experiences, if not the best of the six consecutive years. There was a lot of laughter to be had, a lot of new-found freedom to utilize to your full advantage, and a slew of rewards we all knew we would get in the end but terrorized ourselves imagining if we didn't. Sixth Year truly is what you make it. All the complexities and books aside, there is so much about it you'll carry with you into college and likely after.
In those final few weeks, college will seem like the equivalent to a mirage of a monsoon in the Sahara desert, the idyllic light at the end of the tunnel. Although this fantasy does come into fruition to some extent, college isn't all fun and games. Behind the countless nights out, there is definitely a workload if you're a procrastinator. Keep that inner procrastinator dormant till June, as hard as it may be to grapple from. Also, if you choose a course that caters to you, or that you have a genuine interest in, then that workload will perhaps manifest itself into fun and games too.
College itself is, more or less, a friend-making establishment where everyone is on the same socially-shy boat. Within weeks, you will have already conjured a stable circle of people to have fun with, integrate in your life, and truly be yourself around to enhance that convivial atmosphere of your first year. However, keeping in contact with your Stratford pals is overwhelmingly crucial. Progressing into a life of assignment due dates, hours of travelling to and from your course, and the possible balance of part-time work spells unwarranted lapses of time where you haven't seen certain people whom you are used to seeing on a daily basis. If you put in a little bit of effort or organize get-together's that suit everyone, then life won't seem half as different as you think it is. Thanks be to Zeus for the powers of social networking!
Wishing you all the best for the holidays!
Cal McGhee (2011)
[Image: www.sxc.hu]
Congratulations to Lee Caplin (2007) on his gradation from Science in TCD and wish him well in his decision to emigrate to Israel....making 'alyiah'.
Culture Shock by Ciara Murphy
It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about college. After almost three months of lazing around, partying and giving myself a well deserved break from the stress of the Leaving Certificate, I was more than ready to get some routine and structure back into my life. I was also lucky enough to get a place in my first CAO choice (Journalism in DCU) so things were going very well for me.
However, it wasn’t long before the curse of “culture shock” hit home. Having come from a class of merely twenty three people, it was overwhelming knowing that I was going to be in a core group of forty eight. And I was thrown into the deep end even more so, having discovered that some of my modules hosted lectures to over two hundred students! It was a completely different setting to anything I had been used to before. Some days, although you are surrounded by people, university can be very lonely.
To be honest, it is more than the size and large groups that throw many off their first few weeks of college. Having attended my first week of lectures, I felt nothing but sheer confusion! Many of the modules are intense and jam packed with information, such as law and politics, whereas others are seemingly simply from the onset but are actually very demanding. Take my "News writing" module for example, if the article's are handed in less than a minute past the deadline or over/under the word count, they are not corrected! Another aspect of college that I found off-putting was the amount of public speaking you are expected to do. From debates to presentations, it’s pretty terrifying for some of us!
I realise that whoever is reading this must be thinking “God, she must really hate college!” but this isn’t true. I’m just expressing how different it is from school and, contray to popular belief, the workload in college is very demanding (yes, even in first year!). Having said all of this, I’m beginning to settle in and I’m really enjoying myself now. After six years of avoiding it, I’m finally conquering my fear of public speaking, I’ve gotten involved in many clubs and societies and I’ve made some friends with other Journalism students who had the same fears and difficulties that I did.
Be aware that college is going to be very strange, daunting and scary to begin with. As long as you are patient and give yourself a chance to settle in and make friends at your own pace, you should survive life as a fresher!
Cathal Brugha Street Fresher by Vincent Murray
Hey! My name is Vincent Murray and I was in Stratford until last year. I am now in DIT Cathal Brugha Street studying a BA in Tourism Management. I will be blogging about my Third Level experience especially in DIT. Currently this is week 5 of 16 before the December break and it is not as laid back as I thought it was going to be. However it’s still less work then the Leaving Certificate. In DIT, for assignments you must get four weeks notice, so am you can imagine some assignments are due in within the next two or three weeks. They promote you joining Societies and Clubs - so basically doing after-school activities. I am Chair of one Society that is Young Fine Gael DIT and I am also a Governing Councillor of DIT. So my first few weeks in college have been a bit hectic but overall an enjoyable experience - meeting new people, having different lectures. It is fun. I'll write before the December break again.
Surving the first day by Cal McGhee
Prior to my entrance into DCU, whenever I heard the word ‘university’ I thought of like-minded scholars under one roof, sharing horror stories of lectures whilst downing coffee and Berroccas in attempts to finish assignments, and speaking with that mother tongue of free-wheeling dry wit I had only ever eavesdropped on . Completely drained of optimism that I would ever become one of those students, to say I was in disbelief when I scrolled down to my CAO acceptance place would be an understatement. Now, having experienced my first taste of life post-Leaving Certificate, the transition to university life has been a surprising albeit pleasant one.
The first day, although it was an almost cartoonish disaster, taught me more lessons than any of the lectures I attended that week (it was Fresher’s Week after all, so there weren’t that many, yet) and was a rite of passage necessary to overcome that odd ‘jolt’ you get from the initial culture shock of college. By the end, I had already, most definitely established myself as ‘the tardy one’, short-changed by painfully slow bus routes and 40 minutes late for my first lecture. After getting over all of the unprecedented disasters, there came those crucial first encounters with class-mates; the odd glances to and from students who sat by themselves hoping for some sort of interaction with the faces they would spend the next three years with, and the initial social atmosphere of bars that makes you wonder ‘how all these people know each other already??’. In hindsight, the first week of college was an unforgettably different sensation, but is also a fantastic keepsake that will really be with you for the long-run. In that crucial week, taking a breather and seeing things clearly is essential. Time and time again will you be told to put effort into the notorious ‘mingling’ stage, and realize it comes naturally because of the congenial atmosphere which, more or less, every college exhibits.
One thing I would hope for any new college student, although not entirely substantive, is for a few familiar faces waiting for them when they get there. I had someone to go about the shortcomings and fish-out-of-water scenarios with, and somehow it made navigating campus a lot less of a worry. You would have to have an impermeable confidence to walk around without feeling like a dwarf in the land of giants, and having another dwarf by your side is a godsend, but not always attainable. After my fellow ‘dwarf’ departed early one particular day, I had to fend for myself in the seemingly isolating land of giants, and finally realised that there really were no giants, mostly dwarves, some who were far shorter and insular than I, without a shred of confidence to spark conversations. It’s a shame to see newcomers be so timid, but everyone learns at their own pace. However, I doubt that will be a problem for Stratford's Sixth years! Another milestone any of you will have, no matter how many friends and acquaintances who adorn your lunch-tables, there will eventually come the day where you’ll have to sit alone in the campus pub/restaurant, and feel like a newcomer all over again. You’ll look around and see chaps playing snooker over casual house-pints, bands of ‘bffs’ taking up every couch, and deafening chatter mixed with equally deafening stereo speakers. But, out of nowhere, that feeling of newness dissipates, and you open up a near-by newspaper lying around, read it casually as if you were chilling by your patio door, and any traces of awkwardness creep back into the crevasses of the mind where they belong.
An admitted nervous wreck at the initial thoughts of ‘The Third Chapter’ of Education, I can whole-heartedly say, no matter what college/university it is, it’s guaranteed to be microscopic of the fears and anxieties that plague you beforehand. After all, what’s so scary about free pizza and bouncy castles on the grass?
[Images: www.sxc.hu]
Past-pupil, Verity Walsh (2010) is featured in the "Real People" feature in Image magazine (September 2011). (Click on thumbnails to open an enlarged version of photo.)
