Cead míle fáilte

Welcome to my blog! On the road to getting a Masters in Social Work and International Development I was given the opportunity to travel to Ireland and work at Youth Advocate Programme in Dublin. Over the course of the next few weeks left in New Jersey, and 9 weeks in Ireland I’m going to be telling the story of my experience traveling and creating an interactive photography project with kids in Ireland. They say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, and that’s how I feel about working with kids. They days are sometimes long and hard, but it never felt like a chore to be helping out kids.

How did this opportunity come to be? Is a question I’m asked often by friends and family. Well, here’s the long and short of it. I’m studying for a Masters Degree in Social Work, with a concentration in International and Community Development (whew!).  Part of the program allows students to travel overseas to practice international social work in a variety of settings, depending on the student’s interests and experience. Since September 2011 I have been interning with Youth Advocate Programs, on the international development team. For the past several months I have taken a break from my more traditional social work role counseling youth, to diving into research and meetings on policy, advocacy and emerging topics that affect youth across the globe.  This experience has not only opened my eyes to a lot of things going on, but presented me with an amazing opportunity that is going to unfold in this blog. So welcome to my adventure!

The arrows point to the two locations I'll be staying at over the course of my stay. For the most part I will be based in Dublin, on the east coast of the country, but I will be spending a week in Galway on the west coast as well.