Jennifer Grogan
Castleknock Community College, Castleknock, Dublin 15
At the beginning of March, I travelled to Strasbourg with 23 other students from all over Ireland. It was a very early start for us at 3.45 a.m. in Dublin airport. There was great excitement as we all got to know each other. We arrived in Frankfurt around 10 a.m. and got on the bus to Baden-Baden. We explored the beautiful town for a couple of hours and then we made our way to Strasbourg. We went on a walking tour of the gorgeous city at sunset. We explored the city ourselves and a group of us stopped in a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner. We had an early night as we were completely wrecked from our day of travelling.
The next day we had a busy day at the hemicycle in Strasbourg. We met other students from all over Europe and got to experience life as an MEP for a day. We spend the day debating and discussing women’s rights and it was an incredibly special day. That evening my friends and I went shopping and explored Strasbourg. We had a lovely dinner and got some ice cream outside of the beautiful cathedral. We went back to the hotel and had a great night chatting and laughing.
For our final day, we had an incredibly busy schedule. We took a boat tour of Strasbourg and then made our way to Heidelberg. We took a tour of the castle and it was truly magnificent. We made our way to the airport and headed back home.
My trip to Strasbourg was truly incredible and I made so many friends that I will have for life. It was an unforgettable trip and I will treasure the memories forever!
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As our trip was coming to an end we departed for Frankfurt airport and made our journey home. This final bus journey all together flew by as we sang songs and chatted the whole way. Although it was only a short trip it was and emotional one leaving everyone. I am forever going to be grateful for the opportunity to experience this trip as it was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!! and of course making such great friendships and memories I will cherish forever. We still all keep in touch and are making plans to meet up again in the summer.
Anna Keely
St. Patricks Comprehensive school, Shannon, County Clare
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My trip to Strasbourg was truly incredible and I made so many friends that I will have for life. It was an unforgettable trip and I will treasure the memories forever!
Jennifer Grogan
Castleknock Community College, Castleknock, Dublin 15
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This year I had the honour of taking part in the www.graduate.ie trip. It all began sometime last year when I heard about the quiz from a family member of mine . She urged me to do the quiz as she benefited greatly from her experience on the trip. It didn’t take much convincing on her part as I already took great interest in the work of the E.U. and social issues. I completed the quiz, which detailed questions about Ireland and the E.U., and I hoped the outcome would be in my favor. Luckily it was, and the anticipation began.
Marita Moran
Colaiste Iognaid, Galway
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The European President, Roberta Metsola, was also a very interesting lady and politician to hear from. She told us about her own struggles in trying to get elected in Malta and it was quite inspiring to know, as an Irish person, that despite the size of small countries, they can still produce people capable of reaching the upper echelons of the EU.
Diarmuid O’Donnell
St Mel’s College Longford
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The craic I had in Brussels as well between exploring the city with the new friends I made and hiring scooters, the full experience was unreal and therefore I would like you to pass on a huge thank you to my sponsor the C.C.P.C and all the other sponsors who made this trip possible.
Leahrose Davis
Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana, Co Donegal
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I really enjoyed hearing peoples opinions on gender equality, how the education system in our countries might affect it. Learning the standpoints and views of all the people my age around Europe was something I found really interesting, and I often found myself wishing that I’d be able to share the experience with some of my friends back at home in Louth.
Rachel McCloskey
St Olivers Community School, Drogheda, Co Louth
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I found this trip to be fun, educational, and beautiful. I had never considered a job in Europe, but this trip has given me much to consider. I found it fascinating to see other people’s lives outside of Ireland as I am busy with studies this year and sometimes find I forget how big the world truly is. I have made amazing friends and we are hoping to meet up this summer. This experience has truly been wonderful, and I would like to thank Martin, Marie and Ivana for minding us and allowing us to enjoy this opportunity to the fullest.
Realtin McHugh
Colaiste Pobail Acla, Achill Island, Co Mayo
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I made amazing friends who I plan on staying in contact with and visiting across the country . I am so grateful for this experience and I will be recommending Graduate.Ie to “gach Mac agus iníon máthair ” . I might be a bit bleary eyed now as we touch down in Dublin ach mar a deir an seanfhocal
“Imníonn an tuirse ach fanann an Tairbhe”.
I will cherish this trip forever , it was a once in a lifetime experience
Ellie Concannon
Colaiste Iognaid, Galway
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This trip was an amazing experience, it gave me an opportunity to learn how the world works and it gave me a chance to make new friends and meet some wonderful people. Ms Moran, Ms Župa and Mr Heneghan were all so helpful and I hope more students get to experience this amazing trip.
Kaelin Kelly
Colaiste Choilm, Tullamore, Co Offaly
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Personally, my trip was sponsored by Midlands Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force and I would like to thank them ever so much. It would have been so easy to put the trip on the back burner and forget all about it after the last difficult two years but we were lucky enough to have travelled to the Parliament even still. I cannot commend everyone involved enough: Martin Heneghan from Graduate.ie, Maria, Seán, Deirdre and their Fine Gael colleagues, Tina, Marie and Aisling who supervised the trip with Martin and of course all those at the Parliament who took the time to speak with us. I hope that students in the future are fortunate enough to be afforded the same opportunity as the 24 of us were and that local organisations and County Councils will continue to invest in young people, giving them brilliant out-of-classroom learning experiences like the trip to Brussels. It is so much more valuable to young people than they realise and again, I would like to thank absolutely everybody involved in making it happen.
Kate Major
Scoil Chríost Rí, Portlaoise
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I was overjoyed to be one of the winners during the 2020-21 academic year. The prize would afford me the opportunity to partake in a three day educational trip to the European Parliament in Brussels. To get this opportunity at seventeen years of age is something that I will always be extremely grateful for.
Darragh McDonagh
Summerhill College, Sligo