Meet Our Officers: Joe Mee
My name is Joe and I'm a transition year student attending Scoil Ruain Killanuale. I am dyslexic and practice no religious. As a result of being different, I felt isolated and even bullied. I then did research on the topic of dyslexia and found many students had as bad or even worse school experiences. Talking with my peers and reading research on minority groups, I found one distressing fact. If you are different you will not be fully accepted in our education system. Therefore I want to help represent the minority's, giving a voice to those that often cannot be heard. I want to help achieve a school system that allows all students to achieve their full potential.I hope to have a productive year and encourage anyone that is in a minority group to come forward and be heard.
Meet Our Officers: Kate Lehane
My name is Kate Lehane and I am proud to be representing the students as Student Council Support Officer. I come from Malahide, Co. Dublin and attend Malahide Community School. As a student in TY I thought that now would be the perfect time to become an officer as I can dedicate myself to the position. I ran for this position as I am very passionate about student voice (not just providing the voice but allowing students to learn what that means, how to use it, etc). I want students to be aware of how important and beneficial their voice is. As we are the future law makers, politicians, legislators, workers I believe we should all be educated on the issues that affect us now. Outside of the ISSU and NSE I love watersports and volunteer work. In the summers I volunteer at my local sailing school and am training to be a sailing instructor. As Student Council Support Officer my main aim for this year is to increase membership, represent the union and obviously promote the student voice. I hope to meet as many interested students and teachers at events, training days and meetings in the coming year as possible!
Meet Our Officers: Ellen O'Rourke
Hi I'm Ellen and I'm International Officer. I'm from Dublin and recently sat my Leaving Cert in St Louis High School, Rathmines. Soon I'll be starting European Studies in Trinity College; in the meantime, I'm very busy with ISSU! I ran for this post because I had such a good experience with student council in my own school(s) (at home + in the Middle East), and wanted to get involved in a bigger way - now I represent international students in Ireland as well as Irish students internationally (plus I thought ISSU was really cool - and I still do!). So far this year, I attended the OBESSU GA in Amsterdam, became a No Hate Speech Youth Ambassador and even spoke at the TY Expo. My main focus for this year is a campaign for the integration of migrant and refugee students in Irish second-level schools...I can't wait to share more details with you soon! If you really want to get involved, or even if you have any questions or ideas, please don't hesitate to email me ellen@issu.ie!
Meet Our Officers: Chloe Griffin
Hey Everyone, My name is Chloe Griffin and I am the Campaigns and Communications Officer of the ISSU. I am a Transition Year student in Scoil Ruáin which is a small school in Tipperary. This year I decided to run for office because I felt that the ISSU has so much potential to create stronger communication links with you guys and to get all interested people involved. One of the most effective ways to do this is through social media and by carrying out successful campaigns on matters that affect students directly so we can all join together and become stronger 'Ní neart go cur le chéíle' so they say!. Aside from student voice I have many other interests, I love sport and play basketball and football, with that I also love music and have played the piano and guitar. I am very passionate about mental health and feel there is lots of room for schools to contribute to this subject. With that, I have planned to host a mental health awareness day entitled EMPOWER in February of this year to teach student councils how to introduce coping mechanisms into schools and to retrieve feedback from you guys and hear your ideas. I hope to see you all there! Also at the beginning of my term I decided to revive the ISSU Newsletter, every month it is filled with information and behind the scenes action on all things ISSU. You can subscribe on the newsletter section under Student Councils on our website.That’s it from me. Keep your eyes peeled on our facebook, twitter, snapchat and Instagram for all the latest.
Connaught Regional Council
Calling all Galway students!This February 2nd we will be hosting our Connaught Regional Council in Galway from 10am-3pmIf you are interested in student voice, want to find out more about it or would like to connect with students in your region this is the event for you!Register here: https://form.jotform.com/70155919656970
I MO THUAIRIM, Bígí Linn!
With the support of Conradh na Gaeilge, the ISSU will be running upcoming events in early February in Galway and later in Dublin to report on what Students think of Secondary Education through the Irish language in Gaelcholáistí and in Second-Level Schools in Gaeltacht Regions.The ISSU are delighted to be able to run this event through Irish as more than half of the NSE can speak Irish with proficiency! We hope that Students enjoy meeting others who choose to study through the medium of the national language, discuss common themes and issues and hopefully the ISSU will find out what's needed to improve education through Irish-language and to support these students as much as we can! Ag súil go mór leis! Bígí ann!Register here: https://form.jotform.com/70155317845962