This Years Transition Year gets off to a busy start!

November 12, 2017

This year’s Transition Year students have already embarked on what will surely be an exciting year. Already the months of September and October have brought many new adventures and competitions.

Lively songs & chocolate chip cookies ensure a successful Killary trip

To give a brief timeline; we began our TY experience with the yearly Killary trip from the 4th to the 6th of September. (3 days and 2 nights!) From the get-go, many challenges faced us, such as the confiscation of our phones, which to a teenager is like somebody telling you they are taking away your main source of communication. Nevertheless, we actually managed to survive without our precious mobiles and had a better chance to get to know each other without any distractions. At first, the prospect seemed daunting but after being encouraged to take part in Killary activities to achieve our Gaisce awards, we began to enjoy our Killary experience and take in the scenes around us. (Which were amazing by the way.)

Soon after our eye opening Killary excursion we were inspired once again on our trip to Knock on the 14th of September, where we listened to a talk given by the much admired, Joanne O’Riordan who spoke about her astounding journey of a life without limbs. The esteemed Fr. Peter McVerry, John Lonergan, Cara Augustenbourg and Philip Barret also gave inspirational speeches as part of young St. Vincent de Paul.

Our annual fundraiser event when we welcomed family & friends for a meal that we had all prepared.

As you can imagine when our enthusiastic TY coordinator Ms. Quirke told her TYs that Italian students would be coming to the Pres we were more than excited to cater to their every whim like serving only the best of Irish food. (Tea and scones!) The Italian students went home happy after a few Irish singsongs, courtesy of our amazing trad group, and even they got into the spirit by performing a song themselves.

We then became more acquainted with the opportunities available to us as TYs at the TY expo in Kildare on the 12th of September. Here we listened to inspirational speakers, learnt about TY competitions and different organizations we can get involved in such as Labour Youth and Science competitions. This gave us the chance to learn about what we as TY’s interests us and how we can get involved.

The school gym that all the TY's helped decorate — The school gym that all the TY’s helped decorate

Our latest trip was to Bridget’s gardens where we took part in different activities, that taught us about the new Sustainable Development Goals and what we, as students, can do to get involved, and help achieve these goals. We learnt that our small contribution could make a massive difference in the world even if we are only from a small town like Tuam.

Ellie Egan and Caoimhe Kelly performing a Irish Traditional Medley

So far, the Pres girls have had a hectic but certainly entertaining and fun TY experience. We can’t wait to see what new exciting adventures lie ahead for us, especially as we launch into subjects like Chinese, Driver’s Ed and take part in creative competitions like; Junk Kouture, Young Social Innovators (YSI), Challenge to Change, Public Access to Law and the Yann Photography competitions just to give a little taste of some of the fantastic things we have coming up. We are very enthusiastic about all the future events, and look forward to whatever our next spectacular project may be.