International Inspiration

Every year the MU International Office team goes above and beyond to support international students, but never more so than in the face of a global pandemic. Travel restrictions, online learning, and living in lockdown—not to mention health worries for themselves and loved ones—presented incredible challenges to students far from home.

Yet, the International Office would not be deterred. They put their expertise to work, first supporting international students upon arrival at Dublin Airport as part of a sectoral initiative to safely welcome the students and transport them to their accommodation. They then delivered a series of supports, including virtual Orientation, group Q&A sessions, and one-to-one calls to ensure students were aware of MU support services—not to mention virtual events for Thanksgiving, New Year’s and other holidays, and campus walks in the summer.

They also tapped their partners—like Maynooth Students’ Union, the Erasmus Student Network and other societies—to help international students make the most of their social and cultural experience in Maynooth.

The students profiled here speak to the power of those partnerships and supports. Along with their peers, they showed great determination and resilience to graduate and gain employment.

Read about Garima Verma, a 2020 graduate now working with IBM, and Dr Soham Datta, who co-founded the International Society and is now an oncologist.

Congratulations to the IO team for continuing to support students who were far from home in the midst of a global pandemic.

Garima Verma

2020 MSc (IT Enabled Innovation) Technical Support Engineer, IBM

Garima graduated in 2020 with an MSc in IT-Enabled Innovation and is currently working with IBM in Ireland as a Technical Support Engineer.

A desire to learn what Information Technology brings to society and business - and how that’s changing with the times - brought her from her native India to MU.

“The location of the University is brilliant. You get all the resources you need to study on campus, complemented by beautiful gardens and views to relax. And clubs to pursue what you enjoy doing. The first year of my course was packed with things to be done and time just flew by.”

Garima loved the exposure and real-world understanding that the university-organised talks with industry experts provided.

“These industry talks were a great source of learning for me and helped me understand the on-the-ground reality of what IT brings to the industry in Ireland.”

From what she’s seen as an international student, she says, it takes loads of perseverance to build up a career in a new country and is grateful for all the assistance she got from MU.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better place to learn and grow. All of the professors and staff, from all of the departments, were always there to assist with whatever I needed, from day one and ever since. Here I am, one year after the course, working for a company that’s at the forefront of the advanced technologies I grew up learning about.

Dr Soham Datta

2015 MSc, 2016 Professional Certificate, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Medical Consultant, NineSigma

Medical consultant, podcaster, and activist Dr Soham Datta is a busy man. Born in Calcutta, India but now living in Malmö, Sweden, he originally trained as a medic in China. His footprint continued to leave its global mark when he embarked in 2015 on an MSc in Immunology and Global Health at Maynooth.

“I had lived in many large cities around the world but really wanted to live somewhere different, and diverse. I loved the idea of the university town experience that Maynooth could provide. Not only that but the research possibilities this course offered made my decision for me,” he said.

Something that had a very positive impact on him as a Maynooth student was the approachability of his professors. “Growing up in a very British system, I found it hard to call lecturers by their first names,” he said, but our novel way of discussing his studies over a coffee, or sometimes a pint, with his lecturers soon won him over.

“There’s a lot of hierarchy when it comes to teaching, so it was really great to experience a more personal connection with my teachers.” He was also taken with his clubs and societies experience. A member of the Drama Society, founder of the Hogwarts Society (he recalls playing a game of quidditch at 3am), and the main force behind the revival of the International Society and launching an Erasmus Student Network (ESN) at the University, he immersed himself in the social side of things at the University - winning friends, playing handball, and meeting his wife, Simona Jastremskaite, who came to Maynooth from Lithuania on an Erasmus year in English Literature, Spanish and Celtic Studies.

“I really loved catching up with friends over food in Pugin Hall. Every time I ate there, I couldn’t believe it – Hogwarts is our canteen – absolutely bloody awesome.”

He gained experience teaching in the Department of Biology and in 2016 he was awarded a Professional Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

As a result of a research position his wife obtained in Sweden, and the reputation Sweden has in the medical and health care industry, Soham followed suit and is now a Medical Consultant in Oncology and Immunology at NineSigma.

An avid podcaster with a particular interest in sustainability and environment across Europe, his interests are many and varied.

With a mantra in life that “everything is possible,” and more than ample evidence of a fascinating journey through life to date, by the sound of things, Soham, it is indeed.

Soham’s podcast is available on https://podcast.noplacegreenenough.com. His travel blog is www.instagram.com/countingsouvenirs.