De La Salle College Dundalk

Transition Year Student accepted into
'Centre For Talented Youth Ireland'

Transition Year student, Declan McDonnell, has been accepted on a prestigious course run by D.C.U. which caters for talented young students giving them access to courses of study using third level facilities and expertise.
In his own words, Declan elaborates: 'I did an exam when I was ten for acceptance into CTYI (Centre for Talented Youth Ireland). After being accepted I went on to complete three courses- Forensics, Chemistry and Pharmacy. These were all held up in DCU on a Saturday morning over a ten week period
In April of this year, a letter arrived with details and an application form for the Early Entrants programme. To be considered for the course I had to fill in an application form, write a letter detailing why I should be accepted and also I had to get a recommendation from my principal and year head.
I got accepted to the next stage and was called up to DCU for an interview with the co-ordinator of the programme and a representative from the school of engineering in DCU. They informed me that I would find out if I was to be accepted or not in around three weeks.
Three weeks later, I received a letter of acceptance; all I had to do then was to confirm that I was going to attend the course and that I was also going to do Transition year.
I am now doing a common entry to Engineering at first year, third level standard. There are twelve TYs in total doing the Early Entrant's Programme. There are two doing the engineering course with me; four doing Applied Physics; and five doing Economics, Politics and Law.
I get the bus up four days a week to attend lectures and there are also six hours of project work a week. I think the E.E. programme is a good idea because some people would be unprepared for college and this gives a good opportunity to get a taste of it.'