Study Abroad at the Institute of Technology Sligo

TH experience was great! I had travelled a lot in the past, so the opportunity to do it while studying just seemed to make sense. Arriving to Sligo was an adventure on its own. Being that it was a smaller town, the trip just to arrive seemed to be longer than desired. The workload was heavy at times, but the motivation to get it all done as soon as possible just seemed to make sense, as all of Europe was at our doorstep, waiting to be explored on any downtime that we could make up.

I definitely have to say the importance of having friends from Brazil, we were able to understand each other, and give support to each other when we needed. Although we were in a foreign country to learn its native language, and all advice told us to stay away when possible from Brazilian people. For me it was extremely meaningful to have Brazilian friends first, to improve confidence, and consequently, to meet foreign people. And this contact, in my humble opinion, has not decreased my level of learning in any way.

I can say that IT Sligo definetely changed my whole life, not only in an academic area but also in my personal and even sentimental life. Back home I used to go to college and do some research, but I did not have any encouragement. Things changed the day I put my feet on IT SLigo, those state-of-the-art facilities absolutely blew me away. Every class I took just reinforced my passion for science, and being able to see that when investments are made and facilities provided science brings about inner wills to work hard to see results that can help people. At the begining I thought I would face some problems with Irish students but as time went on I just realised that they are just like us brazilian people are, very friendly and receptive or even more. What to say about the support given by the lecturers? I just found it incredible, all of them were available to me to help me out in any queries both in- or off-class. The IT sligo system used (moodle) also makes the comunication between lecturers and students easier and gives us everything we need to keep our studies up to date. I loved and I miss every minute of my life in SLigo, the town is fabulous, the night life marvellous and the people are so nice and friendly that I barely missed my hometown as Sligo was being so as good as my mother city. I have loads of things to say about my overseas experience but to finish this I just want to thank one lecturer that helped me so much in my future career. I was just an one year international student and one day I asked her to help me in finding a PhD program, if - based on her experiences with me - I would be able to compete for a placement and also to decide in which field I should go for. When I emailed her I was not expecting such interest that she demonstraded straight away reading it. She invited me for a cup of tea and we talked for a couple of hours where she told me lots of encouraging advices, she listened to me and kindly put me on the right way. After this conversation things got clear in my mind and nowadays I know what I want the most. This attitude of her changed my life so thanks Dr Karen Finn and thanks IT Sligo for not only being a college but for being an institution that cares about its students and works hard to provide them everything they need to have a sucessful career.

Events and activities planned out every week, free morning coffees and biscuits during peak event weeks, active clubs and societies, amazing facilities provided like the library, you can hardly, almost never find any of these back home!

It's been a great 2 years at IT Sligo. Faculty and students have been extremely welcoming and helpful. Living arrangements were easy to find, and Sligo town has beautiful scenery surrounding it. It was great to have a trip organized for the first day of orientation that took international students to places like Benbulben, Glencar Waterfall, and Knocknarea. The orientation was also a great opportunity to meet other international students with the same interests as me.