UCD Open Day

Today my year and I went to the UCD Open Day. The bus left at around 10 and we arrived at our destination in about 30 mins. Upon arrival we were brought to a lecture hall where we received a presentation on all the different courses the college has to offer. After the presentation, we split into groups of 12 and, lead by a college student, we took a tour of the campus.



This being only the second college open day I have been to, I had little to compare it to but nonetheless the facilities were quite impressive. The college has activities to suit everyone with 60 sports teams and over 100 societies. The student centre is fitted with an Olympic size pool, gym and fitness rooms. From the tour of the campus I could see that there was no shortage of restaurants and shops. Whilst there I also had the chance to see the new science centre building.







The new Science centre in University College Dublin (UCD) opened its doors to students and staff in September 2013.



Before going to the college I had been told that they offer a very good course that I am interested in. After going to UCD and seeing this for myself and seeing the impressive sports facilities, I would gladly attend the college.



For more info on UCD visit http://ucdlife.ucd.ie/home

Headstrong Mental Health Talk

Dr Aileen O'Reilly talked to us today about the Headstrong organisation.

Their vision is an Ireland where young people are connected to their community and have the resilience to face challenges to their mental health. They are working to change how Ireland thinks about young people’s mental health through the Jigsaw Programme of service development, through Research and Advocacy.

I found this talk very interesting and I know it affects a lot of people in Ireland especially in its current state. Young people should be encourage to speak out as the help is there for them.

Web Summit, RDS

I got the opportunity to go to the Web Summit this year with a select few others. We got the bus from school into the RDS which was absolutely packed with people.
The stage was very impressive as you can see from the below picture. I had a lot of fun here and enjoyed a lot of the speakers, my favourite was the young people who talked of their success with technology.

 

 

 

Gardaí Drugs Talk

Garda Gary Dunne, a member of the Drugs Squad came in to speak to us about a number of drug related dangers and effects. We were also shown some of the worlds most expensive drug operations, one of which was in a cave.
My favourite part of the talk was hearing how dealers and buyers pass drugs to one another. I wont go into much detail but out one end and in the other should explain it sufficiently. While Gary didn't have much experience in shoot outs and exciting stuff like that he told us poignant stories of visiting the poorer area's of greater Dublin. He said in many cases the drug users are good people just taken a wrong turn.
I really enjoyed todays talk with Gary.

DCG First Term

This first part of the year was all based around working with solidworks on the computer. Later on in the year we will be back on the old drawing  boards. Here is a taste of what we've been doing..

Drawing Clip

Memo Block






Glass



Calculator

Bag Packing SVP

Today, October 17th, I volunteered to do bag packing for Saint Vincent de Paul in Dunnes Stores, Cournelscourt. I was put down for the 12-2pm slot. I have done bag packing before and I knew what the job entailed. When I arrived, I got my bucket and went straight to work. The store was very busy and there wasn't a dull moment. The day was very successful and the school helped to raise in excess of €3000 for SVP.
 
 
 

Eagles Flight Workshop

Today we took part in a team building workshop designed to enhance the students ability to problem solve, negotiate with team members in a cooperative environment, facilitate the aquisistion of project management skills and educate students in the area of goal setting best practises and the importance of considering objectives prior to the commencement of projects. The Eagles Flight Workshop was presented to us by Gerard O'Shea.
The object of this game was to travel across the desert to the mountains to collect gold bars (1 per day) and return within a 23 day period. (5mins = 1day). The quickest route brought you there in 6 days letting you collect 11 gold bars so you can return in 6 days. This did not account for weather, food/water shortages etc. each team was given $1000 to buy food and shelter. Everyone was given the same opportunities at the start but we all had different results.
The team I was on came in first place with 7 bars of gold. We were far from perfect though.  After playing the game, we reviewed our every move. Soon enough, we realised that we had jumped to many conclusions, assumed different things and had not fully understood the objective of the game. So, all together, it was a huge learning curve.

See more at http://www.eaglesflight.com/