Interesting and eye-opening

By Ella McGoldrick

I joined the Schools beyond borders project this year, as I was in Fourth Year and thought it was a great opportunity to expand my knowledge and gain new experiences. We took part in many different lectures, learning about the Bosnian war in the 90s, which I had no previous knowledge of, and other topics such as federalism and Ireland’s struggle for independence. We had video calls with other students from Bosnia, Italy and Germany. I found the lectures on the Bosnian war extremely interesting and eye opening.

As part of this project we had the opportunity to travel to Italy to meet and work together with the other students who attended the online lectures. We took part in workshops to create documents that described ways we think we could better Europe. We also had many fun activities planned as part of the trip. We had guided tours around Trento and a small Italian town, visits to museums and free time to explore the local market and buy gelato! As one of our activities we spent the day with the other students hiking in the Dolomites. We had so much fun and the views were amazing. I made new friends with the students from Italy and Bosnia. I also gained closer friendships with my classmates. Overall it was an amazing experience that I thoroughly enjoyed.