South East Technological University’s (SETU) peer mentors welcomed students from Ukraine to the university’s Carlow campus.
At SETU’s recent Spring Open Day, student and peer mentor, Ihor Melashchenko, noticed that some attendees who hailed from his home country of Ukraine, had come to the event to explore the campus and gain more information on the opportunities available to them at the university. After the open day, Ihor felt he wanted to do more to support these students, and so he approached SETU’s Peer Support Officer, Mary Boylan. They organised a special tour of the campus for students from Ukraine.
At the Spring Open Day, students and their parents expressed to Ihor their interest in hearing more about the courses on offer at SETU, having more detailed tours of the campus facilities, and the desire to have a greater understanding of how they could apply to become SETU students.
Mary and Ihor; with the assistance of David Denieffe, Vice President for Academic Affairs; SETU’s Student Services team; and peer mentors, arranged an event at the Carlow campus’ Central Services Building (CSB) where they welcomed Ukrainian prospective students and their families. Guests met with representatives from across the university to learn about student supports, clubs and societies, admissions, and how to navigate the CAO. This was followed by tours of the campus.
Speaking about the event, Mary Boylan commented, “We were so delighted to welcome the students and their families to show them around the campus and help them with any queries they had about courses and facilities at SETU. I’m very proud of the work of our Peer Mentor team who took the opportunity to provide great support to students involved to help them on their way with student life.”
Students had travelled to the event from as far afield as county Clare and expressed interest in areas of study such as computing, software development, digital art and design, accountancy, and aerospace and mechanical engineering.
Mary Boylan and the Peer Mentor team would like to express thanks to their colleagues: David Denieffe; the Student Services team; Martin Meagher; Eoin O’Brien; Cathal Nolan; Alison Moore; Shaun Dowling; Paula Hickey; Annette Murphy and Caroline Dermody from Academic Administration, Tommy Walker from the Department of Engineering; and PhD student, Dillon O’Reilly, for their assistance and support at this event.
Special thanks to the students and their families who attended.