“I love UCD overall. I have been lucky enough to make some incredible friends over the past three years who I know will be in my life forever, and that feels more important than anything else. I have been involved with the Access Centre over the years in their Future You programme. I have gotten the chance to go back to my old school and teach the kids about university and the CAO, and encourage them to believe in themselves and keep working hard to get to where they want to go. It is a lovely programme and I really enjoy helping out with it. I also joined as a student worker onto the FORCE project in the radiography department. It is a project around an online learning platform for radiography, radiation therapy and nuclear medicine across Europe. 

This year we spent our entire Autumn trimester on clinical placement. I was lucky enough to be placed in St Vincent’s teaching hospital, so it was a similar commute to what I would normally be doing for college. We had other modules that we had online classes for in the evenings, so it was very tiring but I really enjoyed it. I feel like my clinical skills have massively developed in many areas. In the spring trimester, we have had more specialised modules than in previous years. We have undertaken CT, ultrasound and interventional radiology; It has been nice to do classes in areas that we may work in in the future. One of my favourite things about this semester were the cannulation labs we did for IR. 

Our placement blocks over the 4 years are completely unpaid and there is also no help with paying for accommodation, transport, lunch, uniforms etc. I have a part-time job but can only work one day per week when I am on placement. It is difficult to prevent burn-out as the work is very tiring. The scholarship has really helped to alleviate my personal worries and also the financial burden on my family. It has helped me cover my transport, my lunches, my uniform and my college fees. It has been a huge benefit to me over the years in particular for the placement aspects of my degree and I am extremely grateful for the assistance.

I want to work clinically for a couple of years after graduation to really develop my skills and set my career off in the right direction. I am stuck at the moment with whether I want to specialise within the radiography field and possibly go on to do an Ultrasound Masters, or potentially sit the GAMSAT and go on to do graduate entry medicine. I am hoping something inspires a decision in me but for the moment I am keeping all my options open!

I just want to say a massive thank you to all the donors who have supported my scholarship,  and to all the staff who organise this programme. I am honestly not sure how my family and I could have afforded college if I was not receiving the financial help I am from the UCD alumni community and the UCD Foundation staff. Thank you so much!”