EIL Intercultural Learning

Kathrin Schneider spent from August 2009 to the end of February 2010 in Ireland as a student of EIL and Experiment's Secondary School Programme in Ireland. Kathrin was in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary and lived with an Irish host family, the Phelan Family of Lisronagh. Below is a reflection on her experiences here in Ireland:

Hun Bin 'Jackson' Lee is a current exchange student on EIL's Secondary School Programme in Ireland. Originally from Korean, Jackson has been living with a host family and going to school in Colaiste Dun Iascaigh in Cahir since August 2009 and will stay to complete the academic year in June 2010. Here are his reflections on his time spent in Ireland:

On Saturday, 24th January, 2010 students of the Clonmel/ Cashel/ Cahir host community had a get-together at their local coordinator's home. Susan Phelan hosted the event so that the international students of the community could gather and socialise with one another. As many of them attend different schools and live in different areas, they do not get the opportunity to mix and meet all that often. Also, Susan wanted to welcome and introduce to the group two new exchange students who arrived in early January.

EIL's very own Gorey host community secondary school students were featured before Christmas in an article in the Wexford Echo Newspaper. Avril Brady is the Gorey Local Coordinator, and also runs an English language school. She invited both her English students and her long term international students to a multicultural Christmas bash to celebrate the season:

I was delighted to have a case study that I wrote about an EIL academic field trip published as a guest blog on the US based website Facultyled.com. Facultyled.com is the leading website for faculty and study abroad professionals interested in developing, marketing, and maintaining faculty-led study abroad. It provides information and resources about study abroad and international travel.

On Saturday the 10th of October 2009 The Tipperary EIL group had their First of many to come Group Outings. The day was bright and fresh as the International bus departed for Cobh to visit and explore the Cobh heritage centre. All aboard the Bus were in high spirits and excited to be together in a group as many of the students had not met since the official orientation. On arrival to the Heritage centre all students were full of anticipation and curiosity. Here all had the opportunity to explore and absorb some very interesting facts and parts of Irish History.

Margaret Walsh, EIL Local Coordinator in Tramore talks about a day trip she organised for 3 particpants currently in Ireland on a homesaty programme in her community. Margaret met up with Paul and Thomas from France and Cornelia from Germany and they set off to explore Mahon falls in the heart of the Comeragh mountains