‘Campus visits are a huge advantage because it can be very daunting’
SHE is still in sixth year and from a community where going to college is a relatively new tradition, but Nikita Nolan feels like she knows some of the university campuses “off by heart”.
Like many of her classmates, Nikita has taken full advantage of programmes facilitated by the school that support students beyond the classroom in overcoming intergenerational disadvantage to take their place in higher education. It includes familiarisation visits to and academic supports offered by third-level colleges.
“It is a huge advantage, because it can be very daunting,” says Nikita, Head Girl at St Dominic’s College in Ballyfermot.
With strengths in both science and business, she had harboured ideas of doing nursing, but a university taster experience made her realise that business was the route for her.
Classmate Chloe Powell is hoping to do Montessori or childcare. Chloe’s career-choice journey has been assisted by the school’s link with Allianz. Allianz has been involved in the Schools’ Business Partnership since 2007 and works with students from St Dominic’s and elsewhere on both its Skills @ Work and the mentoring programmes, which match students with mentors within the company.
Chloe sees her mentor once a month and “she talks to me, and gives me help, such as with my CV”.
Another beneficiary of the programme is Leia Dunne. Her supports from Allianz include a weekly Spanish grind with a native speaker, which someone who is aspiring to study international business with Spanish finds “really, really helpful”.
“It was only since I started the mentoring programme with Allianz that I realised I enjoyed talking and interacting in
Spanish,” she says.
Leia “had been convinced that I wanted to do primary school teaching”.
However, after a taster day at St Patrick’s teacher training college, part of Dublin City University (DCU), where she had an opportunity to explore what was involved, she changed her mind.
“If I hadn’t gone that day, primary teaching would have been my number one on the CAO.”
Conversely, for Leah Ellis, a day at St Pat’s — supported by career guidance — made up her mind to aim for primary school teaching.
According to Taylor Murray, “Miss Daly told me to follow my dream”, which is why she is hoping for a place in the DIT-BIMM music school to study vocals, via the honours BA in Commercial Modern Music, for which she will be auditioning in the next couple of months.