A role change

Posted on January 14, 2015 by dstrunk15
The 2014-2015 winter break marked an unusual transition for me. The past four years I was a “grade-waiter.” Upon returning home to Cincinnati, Ohio for Christmas, I would log into Duke’s online system every couple of days, waiting for my final grades to be posted for the previous fall term. The last few weeks of any term is riddled with a build-up of essays and exams, and the process of waiting for the feedback and marks on each can be an impatient experience. Many a time, when grades were posted late, I would find myself a tad annoyed. What was taking so long?
Now I am on the other end of that divide. I have gone from being a grade-waiter to a grader myself! And it has come with a great deal more empathy for the professors I have waited on in the past. As a Teaching Assistant for a Comparative Politics Module here at the Trinity College Dublin, I am tasked with marking sixty-five two-thousand word essays. It’s proven to be a much more time-consuming and difficult task than I expected.
That said, I can now say, months into my Mitchell Scholarship year, that signing up to be a Teaching Assistant has been one of the better decisions I have made thus far in Ireland—and not just because it pays well (Guinness, movie tickets, and plane flights do add up). Teaching undergraduate students has become one of the more enjoyable activities of my month. It is a tasking yet fun mix of one part lecture, one part debate, one part stand-up comedy, and one part improvisation.
Every other week I am tasked with reviewing a comparative politics topic in separate class sections on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Topics thus far have covered judicial politics, political science methodology, presidential vs. parliamentary regimes, and many other aspects of governmental structure. The most valuable (and entertaining) part of my job, is imparting upon my students the significance of examining issues from multiple angles and viewpoints.
As an American in Ireland, I have found that I offer a unique vantage point on a lot of these issues—one that most of my students are do not hear regularly. I fully take advantage of this situation to play devil’s advocate as much as possible, and it is in these moments that I feel the best learning takes place—both because my students get to learn a new way of looking at something, but even more importantly, because they learn to rebut the counterarguments I make, and in doing so, better learn to defend what they believe. Not to mention, on rare occasion, I just might convince someone to change his/her mind!
So it is without a doubt I look forward to the start of this new term, and the chance to once again explore issues of political importance with students. First tutorial starts tomorrow. But for now, back to grading—fifteen essays left to go!
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Irish Road Trip

Posted on January 13, 2015 by tmccormick15
I had forgotten what a thrill it can be to get behind the wheel and drive. It’s been years since I owned a car, and most of my wandering since college has been aided by buses and trains and planes. Lately, I’ve been especially religious about public transportation, and this summer I attempted, ultimately unsuccessfully, to travel all the way from Nairobi to Cape Town by bus (after more than 4,000 kilometers through six countries, I caved and bought a plane ticket). So when my girlfriend suggested driving around Ireland over Thanksgiving, I was ambivalent. “What about taking a train?” I suggested. “The buses are actually pretty convenient.”

We rented the car.

By the end of our three-day adventure, I was glad we had saved the buses and trains for Africa. There’s a lot to see in the places in between public transit stations, and nowhere is that truer than in the Irish countryside. Here are a few of the highlights.

First stop Galway. We arrived in the late afternoon, just as sun was casting is last rays over the historic shipyard, and took a stroll along the waterfront. Passing the formidable  Spanish Arch, built in the 1580s and once a part of the city’s outer wall, we followed the River Corrib as it rushes through the quays on its way into the Atlantic. From the very tip of the jetty, we watched the sun slip beneath the horizon from atop an ancient rock wall.
After a breeze through the Christmas market, we stopped for some delicious sea food and a few pints in the hipper-than-we-are Latin Quarter. The rest of the evening was spent listening to traditional Irish music in the Dail, a cozy hole-in-the-wall in the city center.

Leaving Galway in mid-morning the next day, we snaked our way around the many fingered bay and out over the rock-strewn slopes of the Connacht countryside. We passed Dunguaire castle, a somber gray edifice where WB Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and other Celtic Revival figures gathered in the early 20th century, and headed south toward County Clair, challenging our three-cylinder Fiat to make it up the steep switchbacks of the Burren.
The Cliffs of Moher were every bit as spectacular as I’d expected, if considerably colder. We hiked along the rim of the great shale and sandstone escarpment as far as we could, and, in a moment of self-conscious millennial heresy, asked someone else to take our photo.

Evening found us in Dingle, a tiny tourist town in the county’s southwest that was all but shuttered for winter. We may have been the only two visitors in town, but that didn’t stop the chef at The Half Door, a quirky seafood joint with an appropriately bisected yellow door, from breaking out all the stops. Wild oysters, sea bass, king prawn — all hauled out of the Atlantic earlier that day.

At daybreak we were on the road again, tracing the jagged coastline of the Dingle peninsula in the direction of Europe’s westernmost extremity. The 26-kilometer Slea Head Drive weaves between dramatic cliffs and rolling green hills, winding up in a majestic panorama that was featured in the last Star Wars movie.
From there, we doubled back and drove the second half of the Ring of Kerry, ending our journey in Killarney. All told, it was a lot of time behind the wheel, but for once it really was about the journey.
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Early Mornings and Your Thoughts

Posted on January 13, 2015 by tdavis15

The Bioengineering program at TCD kept me pretty busy for my first semester in Ireland. I have made a New Years resolution to travel more in the coming semester and the following summer. But with my first day of second semester classes behind me, I am happy to reflect on the holidays and some of the great mornings I was lucky enough to see.

For the holidays, I travelled home to see my Fiancé in North Dakota.We then traveled to South Dakota to see my family and to Montana to see her family. All in all lots of driving through blizzard conditions on really long empty roads. The upside was we were able to spend a lot of time together (stuck in my pickup) planning our wedding and our exciting future together. During all of this traveling and driving we were very busy for two weeks and then I flew back to Ireland and my finals week started. This is actually the first weekend I have had to relax since the first week in December, and no better way to relax than write a blog and reflect on the pictures I snapped during this whirl-wind trip home. I want to share some of these pictures with you of both Ireland and home. These pictures make me happy to be a morning person, even on the days when you are only waking up early because you absolutely have to.

After flying into Bismarck, North Dakota, my fiance and I went home to my ranch and were able to enjoy being “Home” for a short while, even if it was -20 Fahrenheit. The pictures below are an early morning view off the deck of where I call home.

After some time at the ranch we drove to see my brother and his family. We had to wake early to get ready for church and my four month old nephews baptism. I was asked to be the godfather, so I woke early to make sure we made it on time. I stepped to the window of their house and snapped this picture as the sun rose over the Black Hills of South Dakota.

I had a great holiday break, but eventually the time came for me to fly back to the Emerald Isle. I had to return a little early so that I had time to prepare for my three final exams that were schedule for the week before classes resumed (not ideal.. I know!). I landed in Dublin on January 3rd. On the beautiful Sunday morning of January 4th, I was up before the sun and headed out to get some coffee and a pastry for breakfast. I was lucky enough to get a shot of Grafton street all aglow with Christmas lights and not another soul in sight.

I strolled back to campus and entered the Trinity main gate just as beams of light began to spill over the Rubrics and I smiled and marveled at the beautiful morning that was unfolding before me. I took some pictures and stood quietly as the birds sang and the sun rose sleepily over the picturesque chimneys of campus.

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New Years Resolution

Posted on January 13, 2015 by mhussey15

I’ve just returned to Dublin after three weeks at home. The end of 2014 came and went in a whirlwind of final tests, projects and papers. It was wonderful to be able to spend the holidays with my family for the first time in two years!

As I said in my last blog, last semester was very busy for me. My program is pretty intensive in terms of time – I had class all day Monday through Wednesday and sometimes on Thursday. I also focused a lot on activities related to my particular field of interest outside the classroom, with my internship and going to events and conferences with organizations that do work I’m interested in. I settled into a comfortable routine with gym, class, cooking, homework, internship, and social time. I did some traveling to places around Ireland and just recently a quick gallivant in Glasgow, Scotland. It was a fantastic semester and I felt very content when I looked back on it. I’m learning a lot and developing skills and connections that I think will help me do better work for a cause I’m extremely passionate about. I’ve made some very good friends and I’m having a very good time.

Then New Years came around and I did a lot of thinking and reflecting on what I want out of this next term and next phase of my Mitchell year experience. This term will be different for me in terms of structure. Whereas last term we had all our compulsory classes, this term we have electives that are taught as 1-week intensive modules because many of the professors actually come to TCD to teach them either from other universities in Ireland/UK or from NGOs. Since we only take 4 out of the 8 modules, this means I will have more time in my schedule in which I’m not sitting in a classroom. Some of this time will undoubtedly be spent doing more work at my internship at Special Olympics and some will be spent starting my thesis research work. But with that much more time, what else should I do?

My New Years resolution is to branch out and do things that I enjoy, but are not exactly professionally oriented and wouldn’t go on my CV. Some are things I started last term. I am a total bookworm and started reading some Irish literature in the fall, so I will be doing more of that. I also went to go see a performance art show one of my co-workers from Special Olympics was in, which got me thinking that I should really take more advantage of all the theater going on in Dublin. I did a lot of writing last year when I was in Tanzania, so I brought back that journal and my old field diary from China as well and want to see if I can work on developing my writing more. I’m also open to trying things that I don’t even think I’m good at. Two of my Irish friends go to a painting class that is meant for people with no art background, so maybe I will tag along and try my hand at that even though I have no natural talent and have done nothing art-related since my last mandatory art class in like 10th grade of high school.

There is also the chance that some flyer or e-mail announcement for something going on at TCD or in Dublin will catch my eye and lead me in a different direction. It is such a blessing and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live and study in Ireland, and I would really like to look back on this year and see it as a time of personal and not just professional growth. I’ve loved my time here so far and can’t wait to see what 2015 will bring!

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No Ordinary House in the Mountains

Posted on January 13, 2015 by sboehme15

Winding through the Wicklow Mountains with the sun glistening off the peaks of green shaded hilltops, I could not stop staring. Known as the “Garden of Ireland”, the landscape was glowing and nearly alive with the abundance of trees and creeks. The car started to slow down as we entered a small village. Passing the primary school, the pub and finally reaching a dirt track leading to two houses. We pulled into the second drive way with a two-story house a few meters back.

The car with a researcher and retired couple in the backseat had arrived to the party. The occasion was for a get together with alumni of my undergraduate institution. However, the main attraction was a tour of no ordinary house. This house, designed by the host, was built with the environment in mind. A certified “passive house” the building uses low energy and leaves a very small carbon footprint. From determining the direction of the house to collecting rainwater, the house was designed, constructed and continues to operate with impressive sustainability practices.

Knowing very little about sustainability construction and operation in residential areas, I found the tour of this house to be fascinating. Everything was thoroughly analyzed and carefully executed. The walls stuffed with insulation were centimeters thick to keep hot air out in summer, and keep it inside during colder months. A machine tracked and monitored all airflow that would adjust certain variables to maintain a comfortable and healthy environment in the home. It reminded me of Smart House, a childhood movie I would frequently watch in my earlier years. The tour ended with one of the biggest incentives for having a sustainable home: cost savings. Aside from its numerous environmental benefits, the money saved by the homeowner was outstanding. Despite additional construction costs and maintaining the various systems, it was already saving him money on energy and water bills.

This innovative spirit exists beyond the Wicklow Mountains. Talking with my friends at Maynooth University, it is clear that sustainability is on the mind of engineers and social scientists. From students studying law to product design, sustainability issues are important not only in the operation of business and government but a vested interest for a bright future.

Ireland is already making huge strides in addressing sustainability issues and leaving a greener planet for future generations. Ireland’s Department of Education and Skills has outlined an ambitious goal of integrating sustainability in its curriculum and provide opportunities to become leaders in this field. Ireland also has strong recycling programs in many urban and rural areas. Ireland is already green, and with these actions, it will maintain its viridescent hue for years to come.

To learn more about the house, visit http://passivebuild.blogspot.ie/.

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Gone Fishing In Belfast

Posted on December 4, 2014 by tmccormick15

Lagan River in Belfast

There’s just enough wind out of the east this morning that it’s making it difficult to cast. I’ve been out on the River Lagan for three hours already, and burned through half a can of worms. So far, I haven’t even gotten a nibble.

Full disclosure: I’m writing this, longhand, with a fair amount of dirt under my fingernails. I will also need to put my notebook down periodically to check that my bait hasn’t fallen off the hook. This is the first sunny day we’ve had since I arrived in Belfast, and I’ve resolved not to spend it inside tapping out a blog post. Please try to bear with me.

That said, the river is not an altogether bad place to reflect on the first quarter of my Mitchell year. Fishing has always been a deliberative enterprise for me (it’s certainly not a practical one), and when you’re getting to know a new city, you can do worse than to start by diving into the history of its main waterways.

So in between stints in the Queen’s University library — where my research on Sudan and South Sudan has taken me up and down another majestic river, the Nile — I’ve been learning a little bit about the one that meanders through the heart of Belfast. The Lagan’s fortunes, it turns out, have not always marched in lock-step with those of the city. But in recent years, both have experienced something of a renaissance.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Lagan was Belfast’s main industrial artery. Thousands of tons of cargo moved along it every day, while the dry docks carved out of its embankment powered the rise of the British Empire’s third most important shipbuilding center.

The industrial churn predictably took it’s toll on the river’s ecosystem, as did the rapid population growth that accompanied it. Photos from around the turn of the century reveal putrid mudflats littered with rusting scrap metal and other detritus. In one image that’s now displayed near the Queen Victoria Bridge, a car can be seen half-submerged in the shallows.

The river began to gradually recover with the rapid decline of manufacturing in the mid-1970’s, but it wasn’t until two decades later that wildlife started to reappear in significant numbers. In 1994, a weir was completed just above the Belfast harbor and in subsequent years much of the river upstream was dredged in order to reduce the level of pollution.

Lagan Weir

Around the same time, a major urban renewal project in the area of the old dry docks gave the riverfront a much-needed facelift.

By 1997 — and now I’m finally getting to the point — an estimated 400 Atlantic salmon had returned to the Lagan to spawn. In the decade and a half since, with the exception of a bad chemical spill in 2006, things have only looked up for the angler.

I still haven’t caught anything, but online angling guides tell me I’m liable to hook a salmon, pike, perch, bream or gudgeon (an unsightly little bottom feeder that looks more or less like it sounds) or even a sea trout or flounder if I’m fishing on the stretch of the river between the Lagan and Stranmillis weirs. Considering that a fish survey carried out in the 1970’s found that there were no fish at all in the portion of the river flowing through the city, that’s a pretty significant improvement.

Posted in Class of 2015, Natural Resources, Queen's University Belfast | Leave a comment

Mind Your Ankle

Posted on December 4, 2014 by sbufkin15

“You alright down there?” I looked up the towering cliff face to the small face peering down at me. With one toe jammed onto a small purchase in the granite and another slipping a bit from its wedged hold on the rock face, I wasn’t so sure. Fifteen minutes ago, following Roisin up a difficult route along the sea cliffs in Donegal had seemed a fantastic idea – the crowning achievement for a long day of scrambling up easier climbs. But now, having fallen at least five times as I tried to scale a particularly sheer portion of the rock, with my legs trembling and my fingers numb from the sea wind, I was doubting I could make it up. I sat back in my harness for a minute to give my muscles a rest before attempt no. six. At least, I reckoned as I gazed out over the blue-black Atlantic and listened to the waves crashing beneath me, the view wasn’t bad.

I had been prepared for all sorts of new experiences during my year in Northern Ireland as a Mitchell – arguing about the nature of freedom with my philosophy professors, digging into archival materials in Belfast’s Linen Hall Library, enjoying a pint with friends at the pub. Stranding myself halfway up a sea cliff was not one of them. But after I joined the Queen’s University – Belfast Mountaineering Club my third week on campus, I quickly found myself immersed in all things climbing and hiking related. My weekends now took me to new rock faces and mountainsides around the island, from the boggy slopes of the Mourne Mountains to the sheer sea cliffs outside of Glencolmcille. Thus far, I’ve almost gotten blown off a mountain top in lashing rain, fallen asleep in front of a peat fire in Queen’s cottage in the Mournes, built new calluses and new friendships. It has simply been exhilarating.

Making our way up to the top of Hen Mountain in the Mournes.

Thus far during the Mitchell year, tackling the odd sea cliff has only been the most obvious challenge. Moving to a new place and beginning a new program – even when one eagerly looks forward to the transition – poses all sorts of new hurdles. From learning to navigate a new city to building a community of friends and intellectual sparring partners to immersing myself in a new academic project, I have been tackling uphill slopes of all kinds for the last few weeks. Fortunately, in Belfast and at Queen’s, I have found people eager to guide and support me as I get my feet underneath me. (They might make fun of my tendency to say “y’all” and my deep-seated affection for peanut butter in the meantime.) After just a couple months, I have not fully navigated any of these adjustment issues – nor did I expect to have – but I can now see the way up. Each day, I find a new handhold, a new sweet spot for a foot, that I can use to leverage myself into a full and productive life here in Northern Ireland. Attending poetry readings from my favorite writers, drinking milkshakes at Maggie May’s, holing up in the coffee shop with Philip Pettit’s Just Freedom, discussing sectarianism with a Catholic and a Protestant from neighboring communities in Belfast. And I still have months and months to go.

The sun sets over the Atlantic as we finish climbing our last routes for the day in rural Donegal.

On attempt no. 12, I finally managed to snag a good handhold high above my head and haul myself up the rest of the cliff. Roisin greeted me a whoop and a hug. I shook out my arms, ate a huge spoonful of peanut butter, and then plopped down next to her to watch the sun set over the Atlantic as Sinead followed me up the route. Later, we would all walk down the potholed country lane down to the hamlet’s only pub for pints of fresh Guinness and hours of banter beside a peat fire. Sitting there surrounded by new friends from all across Northern Ireland (with the odd English lad thrown in the mix), I felt so fortunate. The Mitchell has exposed me to a side of Ireland that I never would have seen without it – and to a version of myself that I might never have uncovered otherwise.

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Plugging into Dublin’s Tech Scene

Posted on December 4, 2014 by mcortland15

As a twenty-something I am often questioned about my next steps in life.  As annoying as that question gets to routinely answer, it means that I am constantly checking my decision-making compass to ensure that I am indeed heading toward my desired destination.  That compass led me to apply to the Mitchell and move to Dublin, where my goals are to learn from the people who are the best at what they do, work hard in my graduate programme, and to plug into the Dublin tech community.

My decision to apply for the Mitchell Scholarship stemmed from a motivation to develop some of the skills that are necessary to purposefully begin a career in the tech startup world.  Over a year before I even considered applying for the Mitchell again (I got rejected the first time) I stumbled across the programme description for the MSc in Creative Digital Media on the Dublin Institute of Technology’s website.  I want to learn how to take the ideas in my head about app development, education, travel, and entrepreneurship and act on them.  I seek to learn how to rapidly prototype ideas with enough skill to demonstrate proof of concept, and to have the vocabulary needed to effectively communicate with and understand the limitations of the team of industry experts that I will one day build.  The programme at DIT touches on all of these concepts.  Dublin is also one of the hottest places to be in Europe for tech startups, and it seemed as good a place as any to begin my career.  So I reapplied for the Mitchell, and this time was successful.

I arrived in Dublin a month before the other Mitchells in order to complete an internship with a very successful Irish tech entrepreneur named Sean Blanchfield.  Thanks to an intro by Trina, Sean and I connected and set up a summer internship to work with him on his current project, an ad tech startup called PageFair.  I arrived in Dublin and began work at PageFair, which Sean founded with fellow entrepreneurs Brian McDonnnell and Neil O’Conner.  My introduction to Ireland was through the guys at PageFair, who continue to be a really important part of my time here.  My summer internship ended and I continue to work part-time at PageFair, taking on projects that reinforce what I am learning at DIT and help this really well organized startup to develop in key areas.  I am lucky to be part of such a great team at PageFair; what I am learning from Sean, Neil, Brian, Miles, and Scott- really brilliant computer scientists with a passion for entrepreneurship- is invaluable to my professional development and tied directly to my purpose in coming to Ireland.

Shortly after moving to Dublin my graduate programme began.  Having been a teacher and holding a graduate degree in education means that I am a rather critical student, and I am pleased so far with the programme at DIT.  It is very hands-on and nicely spirals knowledge and concepts; what we learn in each class is reinforced in others and culminates in projects that utilize everything we are learning in the programme to create a product.  This semester that product is an iPhone game, which I am in the midst of debugging.  Coming to the App Store Jan. 2015!  For our Master’s Project we create an app of our own invention, which I am most excited to do.

The last of my goals is to plug into the tech and startup communities here.  The best resource that I have found is the Dublin Startup Digest, which lists many of the startup events going on every day in the city.  I try to hit a few of them a week and enjoy going to them, grabbing a pint, and talking to people who either own startups or are looking to do so in the future.  I also volunteered at the Dublin Web Summit, which is the biggest conference of its type in Europe (this year there were over 20,000 attendees).  Volunteering also means that I could also attend for free!  The Summit was three days of tech, startups, and the future.  I loved every moment of my time at that conference and cannot wait until next year’s.

I am making some good friends in Dublin as well, and am really enjoying my time here.  I haven’t seen much of the rest of Ireland yet, and hope to spend some time touring the country and exploring Northern Ireland.  As the holiday season rolls around and Semester One comes to a close, I am looking forward to the traditional Twelve Pubs of Christmas where I can spend time with classmates and friends and show off my ugly Christmas jumper around this charming city that is now my home.

The Dublin Web Summit 2014

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The Art of Small Talk

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Kat Trujillo

I’ve never been much for small talk. Although I’m an extrovert by nature, a night filled with inquiries about the weather and other trite observations tends to leave me feeling drained. I’ve even been known to avoid these painful interactions by spending an inordinate amount of time by the cocktail shrimp table during countless social functions. Yet coming to Northern Ireland has given me a newfound appreciation for small talk.

Settling into a new country is a humbling experience. It transforms everyday errands carried out at home with ease into mind-boggling, team-building exercises or quixotic misadventures. Take, for instance, grocery shopping. As a student at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, I am immersed in the natural beauty of the Antrim Coast, from the hypnotic allure of the Belfast Lough to the majestic vantage points proffered by Cave Hill. What isn’t within immediate proximity to me is a major, affordable grocery store. In fact, the closest Tesco is a ten to fifteen minute cab ride away—or the equivalent of a 45 minute walk, weather permitting. So taking taxis to the Tesco is a way of life among UUJ students, and we regularly round up the troops for our weekly foray into town.

As in all other aspects of social life in Northern Ireland, conversation is expected and relished during these short taxi trips. Yet unlike awkward exchanges over cheap wine and finger foods, these conversations have been rich and insightful, imparting some of my fondest memories since arriving on the island. During an early morning cab ride into the city, my driver and I discussed our mutual love for Irish poetry and British literature. Examining the contributions of Louis MacNeice and Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Northern Irish identity then led us to speculate on the influence of County Down, the Brontë sisters’ ancestral home, on their writings (if any at all). By the time I disembarked at Great Victoria Station, we had covered poetry, religion, politics and every other impolite topic you’re warned to steer clear of during small talk. As I shut the door behind me, my driver shouted: “You know, I never saw a point to the fighting. It’s absolute madness. Make sure you tell your friends back home what Belfast is really like.”

These conversations are not unusual. Every time I step into a taxi in Northern Ireland, I have incisive discussions with my drivers, not simply about their experiences living in the shadow of conflict, but also about their values and vision for the country’s future. We draw comparisons between life in California (where I’m from) and the island, during which I typically dispel a number of stereotypes regarding the boundless opportunities for social mobility that many Northern Irish associate with America. The earnestness and openness with which we are able to breach contentious topics—from the trauma of loss wrought by The Troubles to the silencing effect of the present peace—provides a refreshing departure from the mundane. It has revolutionized the way I approach conversations with strangers. Over the past three months, the taxi drivers of Northern Ireland have taught me the transformative power that warmth, grace, curiosity and a tinge of self-effacing humor can have on the tone and trajectory of a single exchange; in short, they’ve taught me the art of small talk.

Posted in Class of 2015, Uncategorized, University of Ulster | Leave a comment

Disability and Development in Dublin

Posted on December 4, 2014 by mhussey15

Ireland is known for many things. In the short few months that I’ve been here, I’ve found that its reputation for arts and culture, friendly people, beautiful scenery, and lively atmosphere is well deserved. Fewer people know that Ireland is actually a hotbed of activity in the area that is my personal passion: disability and development.

Disability is a long neglected subject in the area of international development and global health. There’s over 1 billion people in the world today with a disability.  Ninety percent of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school. Mortality rates for children with disabilities are estimated at over 80% in some countries. Yet you never hear about this issue and it got no mention in the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. I want to change that and I’ve found people here who want to as well.

The MSc in Global Health was my first choice graduate program in part because it has faculty that focus on making health systems and societies more inclusive for people with disabilities. So far, I could not be happier with the program (even if at the moment approaching project deadlines have me a wee bit stressed).  The classes have had very stimulating lecturers and my cohort of 16 students from Ireland and around the world have formed a really tight bond already sharing our different experiences both in class discussions and over a pint in the evenings.

However, some of my most rewarding moments recently are due to the opportunities I’ve had outside of the classroom to really engage with members of the small but growing community of international development and global health practitioners working on disability issues.

Since October, I’ve been interning at Special Olympics Europe-Eurasia. Special Olympics is a major part of my family life: my sister is a Special Olympics athlete, my mother is our Local Coordinator/Head Coach, and my youngest sister and I have been involved since elementary school, first as a Unified Partners and then as coaches. Having that experience at the grassroots level, it has been so amazing to work in the office responsible for coordinating programs and promoting the organization’s mission in 52 countries in the EU and Eurasia. They gave me a chance to apply my global health learning in their advocacy efforts, inviting me to write an Op-Ed on the Euractiv news site about the barriers faced by people with intellectual disabilities in healthcare and how they are trying to address it through their Healthy Athletes initiative. It’s incredibly inspiring to work with an organization that has made such an impact on me personally and to be part of it making an impact internationally.

In early November, I gave a presentation at the Irish Forum for Global Health Conference about the work I did as a Mosaic Fellow in Tanzania with our local partner on community based disability services. I had originally submitted my abstract, thinking it could be a good chance to help share my organization’s work, but I did not expect as many people to be there who were interested in doing similar things. Never before have I been to a Global Health event where one of the keynote speakers was focused on disability, much less to be working on it for the UN Development Program!

Finally, just last week I attended a workshop put on by an international disability NGO CBM Ireland and Dochas (a network of Irish development NGOs) on disability inclusive humanitarian aid. It included two representatives from CBM’s partner in the Philippines who themselves have disabilities and were able to share with us how they worked to make sure persons with disabilities were reached and their voices heard in the response to Typhoon Haiyan a year ago.

As you can see, I’m incredibly excited to see what this year will continue to bring in terms of learning and experiences. When advocating for an issue that for a long time has been sidelined and not considered “a priority”, it can feel lonely and overwhelming. There is so much to do, but being here and finding that there are many people and organizations that share the values of inclusion inspire me to keep working that much harder and I am hopeful that we will make progress if we keep working together.

Posted in Development, Trinity College Dublin | Leave a comment

Halloween and History

Posted on December 4, 2014 by ljin15

I spent this Halloween in Derry, Northern Ireland with some of the Dublin and Belfast-based Mitchells. Derry claims to be the birthplace of the pagan holiday of Halloween, and its ancient city walls on the steep banks of the River Foyle made for an especially beautiful and historic backdrop for our Halloween celebrations. Our gaggle of Americans – three 80’s workout instructors, a Despicable Me minion, and Rosie the Riveter – fit right in with the eclectic Halloween crowds in Derry.

Before coming to Ireland, my only knowledge of Irish history came from a survey course of Irish literature. Throughout the course, my professor would talk of the “slipperiness” of Irish and Northern Irish identities, things so full of contradictions and humorous double-speak that they defy description. At the time, I didn’t quite understand what my professor meant, but after learning more about the history of Ireland and Northern Ireland and struggling to describe my new home to friends and family, I started to see how complicated it was to talk about Ireland.

Everywhere I looked in Derry was another layer of history. The ancient pagan celebration of Halloween is heralded as a proud part of the city’s history, and the well-preserved 17th century city walls and Georgian architecture testify to the city’s role in British trade. Derry’s city murals memorialize Bloody Sunday and the H-Block hunger strikers but also Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, and the pubs hang the flags of separatist movements from all over the world. I was struck by how prominent the theme of “solidarity” was in Derry’s murals and other public spaces. Before moving to Ireland, I lived in Lesotho, where the legacies of Apartheid and the freedom struggle are also recent history, but demands for solidarity or social justice were not nearly as visible as they were in Derry.

In one of my classes on humanitarian emergencies, my professor attributed Ireland’s generous history of humanitarian aid to the island’s experiences with the Great Famine, The Troubles, and immigration. Virtually every young Irish person I’ve met has spent a significant period of time in America or has a close relative that is currently living in America, and the people that haven’t been to America have almost certainly lived and worked in another country. When the Dublin Mitchells and I went to visit Glenveagh Castle in Donegal on our way back from Derry, we were told the castle’s original owner made his fortune in America, and all the subsequent owners were American, another testament to the closeness of Irish and American histories. It seems like far more young people in Ireland have lived abroad than my peers in America, and that difference shows. I’ve noticed that my American classmates will always introduce themselves by the city or state that they live in, assuming my Irish classmates will know where Boston or San Francisco is, but my Irish classmates are always surprised when an American can name a city in Ireland besides Dublin.

I feel incredibly lucky to have this year to learn more about Ireland, a country that is far more cosmopolitan than I knew to expect, and perhaps my favorite thing about Ireland so far is that all my conversations and learning can be over a pint of Guinness with the people that consider banter their national pastime.

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Changing Course

Posted on December 4, 2014 by stanaka15

I can’t help it—I always want to know what other people are thinking.

That unbridled curiosity is what attracted me to journalism in the first place. At its core, journalism is about people—what they do, why they do it, and what that means for the world. In that sense, my master’s course in Dublin—Creative Digital Media, with a focus on design and user experience—is a natural crossover from my work as a reporter. As a reporter, I aim to convey information—if readers don’t understand the story, then I have failed as a journalist. Likewise, if users don’t understand a product, I have failed as a user experience designer. Both fields focus on discovering what makes people tick, and synthesizing that information into a simple, comprehensible package that others will understand.

I am studying at the Dublin Institute of Technology, which is a relatively uncommon choice among Mitchell Scholars. I was attracted to its industry focus and emphasis on technical skills. I’m learning about visual design, interactive media, digital games, and web and mobile development, and the knowledge and experience I’m gaining is unparalleled. Most of my classmates have backgrounds in design or programming. Given my journalism background, the learning curve is steep, but I am enjoying the challenge.

Because of the time-consuming nature of my course, my weekdays are fairly predictable. I go to class in the mornings, work on group projects in the afternoons, come home and make dinner, chat with my Irish suitemate, study some, catch up on emails, and go to sleep.

Despite my busy schedule, I have taken advantage of living in a new country. I’ve spent a fair number of weekends traveling through the island. I have explored Galway, the Aran Islands, Derry in Northern Ireland, Wicklow, and Killarney, largely traveling with my fellow Mitchell Scholars based in Dublin. I know that a large portion of my learning has to take place outside the classroom.

Now that my final projects are in full swing, I plan to hunker down in Dublin for the next month until semester’s end. My projects include creating a mobile game, building a dynamic website, and designing a mafia-themed board game. I will be spending the winter holidays in Dublin, as well as traveling to Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic with my boyfriend. This has been a truly memorable year so far, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

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