Aoife Lynch, BEng in Mechatronic Engineering

Aoife Lynch, who was part of the Irish team that brought home a silver medal at the World Athletics relays in 2021, says she would “absolutely” recommend DCU.

As she graduates with a BEng in Mechatronic Engineering, athlete Aoife Lynch said the college is “constantly adding new course options to the list and produce the most employable graduates in the country due to the INTRA integrated work experience programme.”

Having secured a sports scholarship, she said, “if you enjoy sport, it's also one of the leading Irish universities across a variety of categories and elite levels.”

Aoife, from Castleknock, Dublin, decided to study engineering as it was one of the broader STEM courses offered in Ireland and, “I had seen how much opportunity there is for women entering a STEM-related degree. I chose DCU due to their dedication and success in track & field, and the club's success at National level.”

She was awarded a Sports Scholarship in first year which helped with funding for fees and travel to races. She chose not to live on campus given her proximity to home. She said, “I actually found the transition from school to college very difficult in terms of balancing academics with sport, due to the demanding nature of the course. I found it really difficult to juggle everything, athletics and academics, so it took me some time to get back up to the level I had hoped to carry in from school success.”

She credited the support received from Paul Byrne, the head of DCU Athletics, saying, “he really checks in with everyone on an individual basis. We had individual meetings at the start of each semester to check everybody was settling back into college life and training was going well.” “He was a massive part of keeping myself feeling included in DCU athletics when I wasn’t on campus all the time, it was a big help.”

Before her exams in 2021 she flew to Poland with fellow Alumni Sophie Becker. They were in action for Ireland at the World Athletics Relays in Poland and “I ran the race and (we) came second. It was mind blowing.” Like other students, her entire final year was done remotely but she said, “I adapted really well to the routine of studying and working from home, and it balanced extremely well with my ability to train in the mornings/mid day rather than after a long day of college.”

“It was unusual visiting an empty campus once or twice throughout the year, but I've since been able to stay in touch with all my college friends since restrictions have eased.” Aoife is working as an IT Consultant for a software company Azyra, “who kindly sponsored my final year project and subsequently invited me to work with them after final year. I love the job that I'm in and they're extremely encouraging and understanding of my sporting pursuits.”

Reflecting on her time with DCU she said, “I couldn’t have asked for anymore from my personal dealings with the college and the Athletics club, I came out of college feeling ready to tackle full time college and life.”