My time in TY was filled with highlights and lowlights. Overall I enjoyed most of what I partook in during the last year, and I am proud of myself for engaging in as many activites as possible. At the beginning of the year, I set myself certain goals and challenges. In my opinion I think I executed all my goals to the best of my ability and would say I have grown as a student because of them. I would think I benefitted from my year of TY as I feel more mature and confident as a result. I also feel my communication skills are the better of the year as many different actvites forced me to bond with both my year and the community.
My favourite thing about TY would have to be the trip to barcelona for obvious reasons. Apart from that, I would say I really enjoyed both the TY Academy in NUIG and also volunteering in St. Dympna's every Wednesday. I feel the TY Academy benefitted my public speaking and marketting skills while St. Dympna's taught me a lot about the unsung heroes of Portumna that others' lives better without getting recognision from the wider community, as it is only until you step inside you realise the mammoth workload those working in St. Dympna's take on, on a daily basis. After spending in the region of seven months in the company of those in St. Dympna's I have formed bonds with both service users and staff that will be very difficult broken. I would definitly say this was one of the highlights of TY for me.
I would recommend transition year to other students in the future however, I do think the musical was a big loss. That is only a personal preference however and I am aware many other students didn't pass any remarks on it and therefore TY on 2017-2018 has proven to be a very successful, happy and drama-filled family. There were some speedbumps during the year, however, the 48 of us students will always remember our TY as being fun, enjoyable and most of all, full of good memories we'll have for the remainder of our time left in PCS.
My favourite thing about TY would have to be the trip to barcelona for obvious reasons. Apart from that, I would say I really enjoyed both the TY Academy in NUIG and also volunteering in St. Dympna's every Wednesday. I feel the TY Academy benefitted my public speaking and marketting skills while St. Dympna's taught me a lot about the unsung heroes of Portumna that others' lives better without getting recognision from the wider community, as it is only until you step inside you realise the mammoth workload those working in St. Dympna's take on, on a daily basis. After spending in the region of seven months in the company of those in St. Dympna's I have formed bonds with both service users and staff that will be very difficult broken. I would definitly say this was one of the highlights of TY for me.
I would recommend transition year to other students in the future however, I do think the musical was a big loss. That is only a personal preference however and I am aware many other students didn't pass any remarks on it and therefore TY on 2017-2018 has proven to be a very successful, happy and drama-filled family. There were some speedbumps during the year, however, the 48 of us students will always remember our TY as being fun, enjoyable and most of all, full of good memories we'll have for the remainder of our time left in PCS.