News

Celebrating Language Graduates - An Evening of Graduate Stories

9 March 2011

To mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of SALIS, the School is presenting three evenings of SALIS Graduate Stories, in  association with the Careers Service and the Alumni Office.

The next event will take place on Tuesday March 9 at 7pm in the Helix, followed by a reception, during which students will be given the opportunity to meet the graduates on an informal basis.

Students are requested to register their interest in attending these great evenings by e-mailing Caroline Whitston:  caroline.whitston@dcu.ie

The event is open to all students, particularly those from Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies, International Business and Languages, Business Studies, Languages for International Communication English Studies, European Business or any students with a language component as part of their studies.

Margaret Ward (IML F/G 1985) graduated from DCU (then NIHE)  in 1985 with a BA in Languages and International Marketing. She worked in marketing with Avonmore (now Glanbia), Coras Trachtala (now Enterprise Ireland) and Mars Ireland before moving to the NGO sector with Greenpeace. She returned to DCU to do an MA in Journalism and joined RTE in 1994 as a reporter on Morning Ireland, moving to television news in 1996. She was RTE's location producer for its coverage of the Good Friday Agreement and the Omagh bombing. Margaret became Foreign Editor in 1999.  As well as managing RTE's international coverage she reported from several conflict zones including the Balkans, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Sudan. She has made a number of documentaries for RTE, one on the Rwandan genocide, one on the involvement of Irish soldiers in World War One and another on Afghanistan. She set up RTE's first bureau in Beijing in September 2007 and has just returned to Ireland after three years in China.

Sorcha Edwards (AL G/S 1998) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. She graduated from DCU with a BA in Applied Languages (German/Spanish) in 1998. Since then she was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Languages for Business from the University of Ulster, Coleraine in 1999 and an MA in European Studies from KU Leuven (Louvain), Belgium. Her MA dissertation was on Leonardo Da Vinci Vocational Education and Training programmes. She has been working in Belgium since 1999. Sorcha was first employed by The Louvain Institute for Ireland in Europe. She is now Energy Coordinator and Campaigns and Networking Coordinator for CECODHAS, the European Liaison Committee for Social Housing.

Sean Gillis (IML J 1996) graduated with a BA in International and Marketing with Japanese in 1996. In 1994/1995, he spent his year abroad at Kanazawa University and on a work placement at a company in Osaka. He subsequently accepted a position as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and was assigned to the ancient city of Nara, the first capital of Japan, to work in local government. Upon completion of his contract, he returned to Ireland in 2000 and took up the role of JET Programme Coordinator for Ireland at the Embassy of Japan. After an initial one year contract, he was later offered a place in the Protocol and Political Division at the Embassy where he continues to work today.

 

Deirdre Clerkin (IML F/S 1996 is Sales and Marketing Manager at Merrion Investment Managers. Before joining Merrion Investment Managers in January 2002, Deirdre worked for J.P. Morgan Investment Management in London and also completed a “stage” in DG1B in the European Commission in Brussels after graduation. Deirdre has a first class honours degree in International Marketing and Languages from DCU (1996) and is a fluent Spanish and French speaker. Deirdre is an active member of several networking organisations including the IAPF and the American, German and Dublin Chambers of Commerce. Deirdre also sits on the Council of the Irish Management Institute.