DCU Law Society and Philip Early of DCU Archery pick up Alumni Awards at the Clubs and Societies Awards 2020
A different setting to the usual Crowne Plaza ballroom, but just as many awards to be distributed at this year’s DCUSU Clubs and Societies Awards 2020!
Last Thursday night saw a virtual ceremony on YouTube Live taking place to announce the worthy winners of over 10 categories. Included in these were the annual Alumni Awards - “Alumni Engagement Award” and “Graduate Contribution to a Club or Society Award”.
As always, the standards of the nominations in both categories were exceptional and showed the effort of the students and graduates, as well as the dedication of our clubs and societies in DCU to engage both students and Alumni. However, there could only be one winner in each category.
DCU Law Society were the winners of the Alumni Engagement Award. They were selected based on their Legal Speed Meet event, which saw 80 graduates spanning across the 10 years of the BCL, EPL, Joint Honours with Law and LLM programme taking part.
There was a gathering of representatives from different firms and legal related companies around Dublin. This event encouraged the formation of relationships between lecturers, current students, as well as alumni. Students would be given the opportunity to speak to legal professionals on a one-to-one basis, facilitating the development of a more concrete network of support amongst students and graduates. The Legal Speed Meet has allowed the DCU Law Society to reconnect and broaden their alumni network and showcased to students the plethora of opportunities for students studying more diverse programmes.
Beatrice Monciunskaite, who is a 2018 graduate of the Bachelor of Civil Law programme at DCU, attended the event representing the Ph.D. programme at the School of Law & Government. When speaking about the event, she said:
The Legal Speed Meet is an event that opens the door for students to diverse employers, giving them the insight and confidence to proceed in their legal careers. I was delighted to be part of such an important resource of young lawyers.
Philip Early from the DCU Archery Club picked up the award for Graduate Contribution to a Club or Society.
Philip began archery during his time as a student in DCU and filled many positions on the committee (including chairperson). His experience in being Chair for the Club Life Committee (2015-16) and Safety Liaison Officer (2016-17) has proved to be essential to the Archery club with his knowledge of procedures and ability to work with others to improve aspects of the club.
Now, Philip plays a vital role in the club as president (as a staff member) and as coach, available to help the committee throughout the year. He also took on the role as a volunteer coach this year and the club relied on him to teach all their beginners throughout the year.
Philip continues to help make the DCU IV one of the best competitions of the year by acting as the Director of Shooting and Judge, aiding the rest of the committee in organizing approximately 200 archers.
As well as that, he was instrumental in setting up and organising the first ISAA outdoor shoot that allows students the opportunity to shoot distances up to 70m in a more relaxed setting with the intention of building confidence in these archers to join more Archery Ireland outdoor shoots.
While Philip officially became one of the coaches, he invited the new Archery Ireland Junior Head Coach, Alex (who has trained Olympic archers through his career) to come to see the club in action. Alex was so impressed with the set up that he decided to coach the club and to work with Phil on improving our advanced archers
For DCU archery, he has the role of Director of Shooting and is also Line Manager, two major roles that help the smooth running of the club and he works towards the sport for all ethos.
As National Junior Manager, member of the NGB Exec and having represented Ireland at international competitions as Irish team manager, he adds professionalism, as well as fun to the DCU Archery club.
