15th TU Dublin ‘Students Learning with Communities’ Annual Awards, 2023
TU Dublin’s award-winning Programme for Students Learning With Communities will celebrate the outstanding achievements of students and community partners who worked together on innovative real-life projects to address community goals and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which address areas such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.
This is the 15th year of these annual awards, the first in-person event since 2019. During those 15 years, over 15,000 students across disciplines have worked on collaborative projects with hundreds of community organisations, as part of their programmes of study, supervised by their lecturers.
Examples of this year’s projects included:
- 2nd year Social Care students worked with the HSE Health & Wellbeing unit to develop a toolkit for them to use when reviewing resources for the self-management of chronic diseases, to ensure the resources are culturally diverse and inclusive (SDG 3 - good health and wellbeing; SDG 10 – reduced inequalities).
- 4th year Marketing students worked with charities to enhance their digital marketing, including the organization Mary’s Meals (SDG 2 – zero hunger).
- 1st year Medical Science students worked with local primary DEIS Schools to design fun scientific experiments for children as part of the 'Seeds of Science' initiative (SDG 3 - good health and wellbeing; SDG 4 – quality education).
Learning is more engaging and rewarding for the students as they work with community partners, developing professional transferable skills, and enhancing their understanding of their specialist subjects and the communities they work with. Community partners become part of the teaching process through collaboration, contributing their knowledge and expertise, and increasing the relevance of TU Dublin research and programmes of study. These projects aim to energise participants to work for social change.
On May 3rd 2023, TU Dublin President, Professor David FitzPatrick, will present the awards to students and community partners at a ceremony in TU Dublin Grangegorman. The event is coordinated by the TU Dublin Programme for Students Learning With Communities.
For more information on TU Dublin’s Programme for Students Learning With Communities please see our website: https://www.tudublin.ie/connect/communities/slwc/