They may be a hidden element of third level education but support services for students are delivering vital interventions to help them through challenging times.
A good example is provided by Moira Rammell, from Derrylavin Heights, Nenagh, one of the 2,000 students who graduated from Limerick’s Mary Immaculate College last week.
Moira became pregnant just before entering her final year of her Liberal Arts degree but graduated with flying colours last week and paid tribute in this video to the student support services for helping her through a challenging year.
And having graduated now, she’s returning for more – to do her masters at MIC.
Her graduation was a particularly poignant moment for Moira.
“I kind of underestimated, maybe, how difficult that would be while being pregnant. That was a little bit naïve,” she said.
“The biggest sort of challenge was maybe knowing how to talk to lecturers about being pregnant and what my next step would be. The college and the support within the college was priceless. And from there, kind of, everything fell into place.”
Speaking on her graduation day, she said: “Graduating today means everything to me, especially to graduate from Mary I. It was always sort of a little dream of mine when I was in secondary school and it was a journey to get here.
“When I think of Mary I looking back I’ll think about not just the start of my life but the start of my family’s life and my little boy’s life,” she recalled.
Speaking at last week’s graduations, Bishop Brendan Leahy paid tribute to the late Professor Michael Hayes, former President of MIC (2011-2017) who passed away earlier this year.“Professor Hayes made a remarkable contribution to the College…and often spoke of how studies at a Catholic college such as ours should contribute to you [the graduate] becoming a person of hope and of vision, a person who sees meaning in life in this world and promise beyond,” the Bishop said.
University of Limerick President Professor Des Fitzgerald said that while Professor Hayes’ loss was great, his legacy to MIC and to education in Ireland was a strong and lasting one.
Professor Fitzgerald went on to acknowledge the special relationship that exists between UL and MIC saying “the partnership has reached many milestones over the years and I know that UL has been happy to engage in further educational innovations with MIC in collaboration with Limerick Institute of Technology under the aegis of the Shannon Consortium to deliver significant additional benefits to generations of learners and researchers in the region”.
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