Gaughan's Guide to the BA
- Details
- Category: My Mary I
- Published on Thursday, 16 December 2010 16:04
Johnny Gaughan
BA Geography & English,
2006 -2010
Johnny reflects on his 4 years in MIC and how it got him on the road to Secondary School teaching.
So what springs to mind when I reflect back on my four years at MIC? So many memories from the anonymity of LG9 in 1st Year allowing one to take a crafty nap to the randomness of nights out (1st Year’s Relive Rag Week and a treasure hunt around Limerick City in 2nd Year springs to mind), chicken fillet rolls and Lucozade after a hard slog in TEFL classes on a Friday morning, cramming sessions in the library before exams...the list goes on.
What I will remember most about college life are the wonderful people I encountered and became friends with over the four years. College is a vital social network that provides you with fondly remembered stories of “that Tuesday night in Trinity Rooms” amongst others. As graduation approaches I believe that college life has provided me with a springboard towards achieving what I want out of life both personally and professionally. With great friends made and the excellence that MIC’s teaching staff has offered over the years I leave college with the degree I always wanted, the fantastic experience of having taught and studied overseas during 3rd Year Off-Campus and ready to face the big bad world!
I studied English and Geography as my two majors at MIC. I originally chose these subjects because English was always my strongest area throughout school and I was keen to take on Geography again as I had not studied it to Leaving Cert level. I thoroughly enjoyed both these subjects and feel that I benefited hugely from the wealth of material on both courses. With English, I got the chance to study many diverse writers from James Joyce and Edna O’ Brien to JD Salinger and Virginia Woolf. Many of the modules from the Big House Genre section in 2nd Year to the Elizabethan-Jacobean Theatre in Final Year were of particular interest to me as the chosen texts were engaging along with expert teaching.
Geography has been another enjoyable area for me. Amongst the merits of the Geography course in MIC is the incorporation of field studies, utilising important programs such as SPSS for data collection and the choice of modules available to students in Final Year, which allows one to play to their strengths, be it in Physical or Human Geography. Overall, my two majors have proven to be extremely worthwhile areas of study, complimented by enthusiastic and hardworking teaching staff.