My name is Robyn and I am a TY student who took part in the 2021 Bridge to College Trinity Access Programme. This is a programme which aims to help participating students develop the skills and experience needed to progress to, and thrive in, third level education.The programme is designed to engage young people, typically Transition Year students, in creative, technology-mediated projects, mentored by volunteer third level students. I took part in this programme for a week in the Citywise centre in Jobstown with other local schools.
At first, I didn’t know what to expect as I had heard from my other friends who had taken part in the previous weeks that there was a lot of presenting involved and naturally like most people when they hear the word presenting, I was quite nervous. However, as soon as I got into it I found that it actually just helped me with my confidence levels speaking publicly. We did activities such as making movies, PowerPoint presentations, making advertisements, planning fake events and more. I dreaded the presentations but can safely say that overtime I felt way more comfortable doing them. There was also a strong social aspect present as well, I met a lot of nice people and overall, it was such a nice environment. It was a great new experience which is what Transition Year is all about.
I got an opportunity to sign up for Citywise’ leadership programme as well where I will be helping out with classes that take place in the Citywise centre for primary school kids. I have started taking part in this outside of school every Friday and am enjoying it a lot. My advice to transition year students in the future would be: if you get picked for the Bridge to College programme, from a student who isn’t fond of public speaking at all, go for it, you will not regret it, I can safely say it is a great opportunity for anyone.
By Robyn Hooper
