Denise Thean Pui Yan joined MCKL's Diploma in Early Childhood Education programme in 2015. She graduated as the top student in her batch and furthered her studies at the Institute of Technology Tralee, Ireland on a scholarship. She shares her testimonial here.
My experience in MCKL and the Institute of Technology Tralee (IT Tralee) was terrific. I suppose both positive and negative events that occurred throughout my studies in MCKL and IT Tralee made up the amazingness.
All Things Good
One of the positive events, I suppose, would be being taught by lecturers who were kind and diligent. These two exceptional qualities were portrayed by the lecturers whom I came across in both MCKL as well as in IT Tralee. You can see the effort behind as the lecturers presented lectures in an easy-to-understand way to accommodate students from various backgrounds and levels of English language. However, the lecturers had never compromised the standard of quality of their lectures.
Besides, I have not come across a lecturer who was hesitant to assist us in our process of completing assignments as well as preparing for examinations. The constant assistance from lecturers was especially significant for me when I was studying in IT Tralee. It helped me to alleviate much uncertainty due to the unfamiliarity that I had with the assessment methods adopted in Ireland.
The lecturers were willing to stay as late as they could after lectures to answer our queries about the lectures and the assignments. They were also ready to check the drafts of our assignments to ensure we were on the right path. I cannot but to even mention my supervisor, who was very patient with correcting the grammar mistakes I had, besides guiding and prompting me to the right direction of research when completing my dissertation paper. I believe every extra hour that she spent for those under her supervision was worthy as her effort had safeguarded the quality of our papers.
Importance of Family and Friends
One of the negative events, I suppose, would the absence of family members throughout my stay in Ireland. I felt a loss of motivation for my study at the beginning of my stay in Ireland because of having no family members besides me.
It was indeed not a pleasant experience, but this later turned into a positive and exciting experience for me. It helped me to realise how important my family members were to me and how their mere presence motivated me throughout my life of studies in Malaysia. Most importantly, this experience taught me to learn to love my friends.
Loving friends is no longer merely about giving, sharing, helping each other, but also treating each other as family. Throughout the stay in the apartment in Tralee, we gave the best that we had to each other. We shared good food, regardless of how much we had. We helped one another in assignments irrespective of how late it was at night. On what I meant about treating each other as family, it is bearing our weaknesses of one another. These weak points might have caused some to cry quietly in the middle of the night, but at the same time, this taught us to be strong, to keep loving and forgiving. As time passes, it was evident to witness how love from friends changed one’s character into better.
It Is All About the Journey
I thank God for all the positive and negative experience that He allowed me to go through throughout my journey of study in MCKL as well as in IT Tralee. I would conclude my experience in MCKL and IT Tralee as both fantastic and exciting.