Thank You Transition Year! – My Year in Review

As my Transition Year in Crana College draws to a close, I look back on one of the most interesting and inspiring times in my school life. The year has by far exceeded any expectations that I ever had, encompassing everything and anything inside the Irish Education System.

I think that it is fair to say, that I had an action-packed, yet educational year in TY. Like many other skeptics, I came into the year, with an idea of prejudice in my head, thinking that the year didn’t yield any opportunities or chances for me, and I couldn’t have been further wrong! Within a matter of weeks, I realised that TY In Crana College (and in many other hard working schools around the country) is one of the best organised programmes, that aims to get the most out of each and every student, based on the effort and commitment that the students dedicate to the programme.

Transition Year, has improved me for the better. I have became a lot more confident in this year. Through this, I have countless unforgettable memories, but of these, the most prominent include:

Speaking on behalf of TY Ireland at the National Parents Council of Post Primary Secondary Schools annual conference in the INEC, Killarney.

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Participating in the 5K Mud Run!

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Making the Eir Junior Spiders – Giga Spiders – Best Induvidual Project Shortlist.

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Being ‘Highly Commended’ in the National Career Skills Competition with CareersPortal.ieĀ 

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Transition Year has been simply, amazing, and has made me much more ‘well-rounded’, and confident person. I feel that this year has benefited me greatly, and that I have taken every opportunity possible to get the very best out of this year. I would urge any student who is doing TY next year, to firstly, push themselves in TY, secondly, take every opportunity available to you, and thirdly, enjoy TY – It will be amazing!

Above, is only a snapshot of what has being going on in my Transition Year! I’m sure that if you were to read through this blog, or my Twitter Feed, you would see a much bigger picture of what my Transition Year was all about.

Writing one of my final blog posts of TY has really saddened me, not only has this blog been an ongoing assessed piece of work for my Media Studies Module, but it has been a space where I can freely write about a topic that I have grown to love! A special thanks has to be given to absolutely everyone who have supported me in this journey – My TY Coordinator, Teachers, Staff, Employers, Co-Workers, Transition Year Ireland, Volunteers, Guest-Speakers, Fellow Bloggers & Twitter Users, Family & Friends , and everyone in between- each and every one of you have helped make my TY that extra bit more special!

Thank you Transition Year!

 

Combining Business & Tourism – Transition Year Enterprise Project

One of the most recent projects that Transition Year Students have been participating in is an Enterprise Project, in which Business and tourism have been combined. This project is being ran, called Charlie McCarron, who coincidentally supervised us on our Hill Walking Trip, which happened in December , last year.

The project aims to create a business with a ‘Business and Tourism’ element and is being used as part of Mr McCarron’s Master’s Degree, which he is studying in the Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT), and the project will feature 5 mentors or ‘Dragons’, who will help set up a business related to their area of expertise, with students. Each Transition Year student from each Secondary School in Inishowen (Crana College, Scoil Mhuire, Carndonagh Community School & Moville Community College) is required to think up of a business idea, that is related to tourism, and provide a plan for the setup of the business.

The businesses must be set up under one of the five headings that correlate to the 5 mentors who will be overseeing the competition. These 5 headings are:

  • Pride of Place
  • Adventure Sports
  • Cultural & Built Heritage
  • Environmental & Sustainable Development
  • Other Businesses

So far, we have met with two of the 5 mentors – Paul McCusker (Other Business) and Patricia Strafford (Cultural & Built Heritage), who have both ‘pitched’ their areas of expertise to us. Both of these mentors have proven extremely promising, and both of their areas of expertise seem very interesting as well.

I would be really happy to work with either of these mentors, however I haven’t created a business idea yet! It is unsure whether I will be working with the group that created my Mini-Company – ‘Chain Reaction’ Key Rings or I will be working in a separate group is unknown!

However, I am really interested in the project, and I am sure that my business idea will become clear once all five mentors have visited.