AOIFE MCEVOY

Award Year: 2015

Course: Medicine

Activities: Medical Society; Societies’ Council

Occupation: Still a student!, UCD School of Medicine

How can I capture the last 6 years I’ve spent in Belfield in a way that would do them justice?

When you speak to people from different universities, their one resounding comment tends to be that UCD is so big and it must be impossible to make friends and get involved in campus life. Thankfully, for me, that is something that has never rang true.

Getting involved in UCD societies has massively enhanced my entire college experience. I worked harder on events we put on in MedSoc than I did for most of my exams in the initial years of College. A lot of my memories of being in the Library involve very interrupted study periods, where I’d be up and down every few minutes taking phone calls or writing emails to put together the last few details of an event. Looking back, the events seem a little more insignificant now, but I don’t for a second regret any of the work. Through roles in societies, I’ve honed my skills in public speaking, organisation, teamwork, and management (to name but a few) and have garnered experience that would be difficult to get in most full-time jobs. I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years but what I’ve done has added so much more to my education for the future than many of the core modules in my course have.

What has made it so enjoyable is the people we worked with. I suppose there is a certain like-mindedness present in most of the people involved in campus life: a willingness to engage that has made for some of the strongest friendships. Bonds are built in society dilemmas, dramas, and “crisis” situations - those instances are some of the funniest and fondest to reminisce over now with life-long friends.

Involvement in societies has been such a valuable asset to my development throughout College and will forever be outstanding in my mind when I think back over my time spent in Belfield.