(left to right) – Ciaran Hunt, Sarah Larkin, Darren O’Connor, Harley Thwaites and Patrick Savard
Three students from the Emerald Isle have landed at UWinnipeg as part of an international exchange program with the Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) in Ireland. Ciaran Hunt, Sarah Larkin and Darren O’Connor are each pursuing a Bachelor of Science Honours in Sports Therapy with Rehabilitation at Athlone and will complete one semester here at UWinnipeg. Next semester two UWinnipeg students, Patrick Savard and Harley Thwaites, head to AIT to share a similar cultural academic exchange in Ireland.
This exchange opportunity allows for a diverse cultural and academic experience for both the AIT and UWinnipeg students. This includes taking courses that develop an understanding of research and practice related to health and fitness, motor behaviours, sport science, sport and exercise psychology, sport management and athletic therapy. The studies apply to different sports in the respective countries.
Irish students Hunt, Larkin and O’Connor shared that it was an amazing opportunity offered through their athletic therapy course at AIT that brought them to UWinnipeg. The students explained it was “the chance to broaden our horizons and experience a part of the world that none of us have visited before,” and that they are working in the athletic therapy clinic in the university and also out in the field with Canadian football teams.
The students also hope to get involved with some hockey teams, an opportunity that is not available to them back home. They expressed that UWinnipeg faculty and students are “extremely nice and making our stay even more enjoyable,” as they “are only here until December so our trip is short and most definitely sweet.” They shared the Irish saying “‘An te a bhionn siulach, bionn scealach’ meaning, ‘He who travels, has stories to tell.”
The students have also been volunteering to help with a seniors fitness program and a diabetes awareness and education program, both of which are run by the University, to add to their experience in Winnipeg.
The Canadian students said they are both excited for the great opportunity to gain experience in different practical, classroom and professional settings than those in Canada, saying “it will be very interesting to work in the various different sports that are important to Irish culture that are unfamiliar to us in Canada.”
