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A Monarch in Maynooth

Katie Botha • November 17, 2022

Last month, Mrs. Janus caught up with Hannah Lyons (SMCS ’18) who shared the following update from her college experience at Maynooth University in Ireland.

I made fast friends with two of the girls I am living with! They share my adventurous spirit –both doing their full degree away from home just like I am)– and we took a little day long train trip to Sligo the weekend before our classes started.

It was a wonderfully Irish town with cobble streets, crumbling churches, craggy beaches, and live music. It was so ridiculously easy to travel from one coast to the other: only a cheap, three-hour train ride! I knew it was going to be easy to travel around over here, but this little trip gave me so much inspiration for all the places I can go this year.

A trip to Scotland may or may not be in the works for next month!

I have completed two full weeks of classes now. They could not have gone better. My first class is English 101 at noon on Monday. It was in the largest lecture theatre on campus seating around 500 people! One might think one would feel lost in the sea of people, but I was invigorated by being surrounded by that many like-minded people. For those large classes I, as an arts degree student, have weekly or bi-weekly tutorials that meet in much smaller groups of 15 to 20 to discuss the lectures and material for the week.

I am also taking a history course discussing different empires’ effects on globalization, a geography 101 course, and another history course covering how historians practice history in different ways. My double history courses technically make me a history major, which has been a blast. This does mean that between English and history, each week I have several dozen pages of readings to do, which has been quite the task in and of itself. However, my school day lends perfectly to a quiet morning of reading because I do not have any classes before 12 noon.

I could not be more excited!

>> Read Hannah’s letter to St. Mary’s in its entirety in the Fall 2022 edition of the Monarch Messenger Alumni newsletter.

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Faithful Citizenship Resources In anticipation of Election Day on November 5, the Virginia Catholic Conference has prepared voter education resources to help Catholics confidently vote with an informed conscience. Those resources can be found on the Catholic Diocese of Richmond's website . School Day Reminders This year, Election Day is a regular school day with a regular bell schedule at Saint Mary's Catholic School. In prior years, it has coincided with Parent-Teacher Conferences resulting in a day-off for students; however, that is not the case this school year. Many of our students across all grade levels are aware of the importance of Election Day. We anticipate the days leading up to Election Day and those following it will provide topics of conversation that students may choose to engage in both inside and outside the classroom. If necessary, our teachers may offer age-appropriate explanations of the day's events and results. As family members, we encourage you to guide your children as they navigate their thoughts and feelings over the coming weeks and months.