To celebrate International Women's Day (IWD), we are shining a light on some of the amazing women who help shape National College of Ireland. Find out what IWD means to them.
Leah O'Driscoll, Student at NCI
International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2025
Shining a light on the women of NCI.
My name is Leah O'Driscoll, and I am a first year Early Childhood Education student here at National College of Ireland. I’m settling into my second semester. I’m enjoying my course, but I’m still getting used to the transition from secondary school. I had a strong group of friends in school, so not seeing them every day, and getting used to everyone’s new schedules, has been a big adjustment.
Previous paths and future aspirations
I’m from a small village in the south side of Dublin. I still live in the same area that I was born in. I really enjoy that familiarity because it is helpful to have that part of my life stay the same while I’m adjusting to college life.
I attended Loreto College Dalkey. Secondary school was extremely important to me. I believe that the friends I made there along with the teachers I had, have played a huge role in shaping the person I am today. I am lucky to be able to say that I was part of a nice, warm community in secondary school, and as each year went by, I felt a true sense of belonging in school with my friends.
Even now, I think of school as being like my second home. My friends feel the same way. After graduation, my best friend and I had a long chat about how everyone in our year referred to our year head as a second “Mammy” figure to everyone. I’m really glad that I got to have the same year head from first year to sixth year. That hadn’t happened in Loreto before, it was the first time that a year head had stayed with one class throughout their six school years, and we became so close as a group that parting was emotional for the students and the teachers. They talked about how they had watched everyone grow up.
Lightbulb moments
While my year head was majorly inspirational, I vividly remember when I realised that I wanted to be a teacher. It happened before I even went to secondary school. I attended two different primary schools; I moved to a new school after two of my closest friends moved away from Ireland. It was a hard move because I was the “new girl” in a class of people who had known each other since they were toddlers. Although I had to sort of “slot in” late, my new teacher, who was also the principal, had so many years of experience, and she was incredibly helpful.
I remember watching the way she interacted with her class and managed to multitask being the teacher and the principal of a school. She never let the busy workload impact the kind of teacher she was. Somehow, despite having so many things on her plate, her concern for the class always shone through. She looked after everyone with so much attention and care, and I wondered if maybe I could be like that too. Maybe I could be that kind of teacher someday.
My motivation
Sometimes in class we talk about someone inspirational that stands out to us. Most of us remember a person or a moment that sparked the idea about teaching ourselves. I think I’ve been incredibly lucky throughout my education as I’ve always had good teachers who knew exactly what to do, how to handle things that went wrong, and who knew what children and young adults needed to be okay.
I feel I was lucky to have teachers who genuinely cared about what they were doing and had great insights and intuitions about what children needed. I hope to be that same kind of teacher someday. I always felt that I could go to my year head about anything and get the support I needed. I hope to be able to pass on that support and care to others.
I want to be that kind of teacher. When a student faces hardships or they feel thrown or upset by something, I want to be that person who they instantly think of to go to for help. Straight away, they know I can help them. I want students to know that I’m that teacher who genuinely cares about them. That passion comes from feeling so supported myself throughout my education.
International Women’s Day
I love International Women’s Day. It was always one of my favourite days in school. It was an all-girls school, so the school made an effort to acknowledge the day. It was something that was talked about. It was a known day, and all students knew and understood that it was an important day. Every year, there would be a specific photo display of different women so that all the young girls in the school could see that picture-wall and be inspired by the many different women on display. I loved the way the display wasn’t taken down instantly after International Women’s Day ended, it was prominently displayed for a long time during the school year.
International Women’s Day was celebrated with chocolates and other treats, and they replaced the wrappers of the chocolate bars with school sleeves, so as we all came out of school, we were handed an International Women’s Day chocolate bar. It was a small, sweet thing, and at the time we were all just delighted to get an extra treat, but looking back, we all recognise how nice it was for the teachers to make that effort and hand out those treats to everyone on their way home every year. The day was never overlooked or glossed over, the day and its significance was always highlighted.
How women have inspired me
I have always loved books about inspirational women, especially from the age of ten and onwards into my teens. I loved to receive books about different women, and as I got older, I started reading the biographies of women. Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography specifically stood out to me. I found her story so moving. I have also always looked up to awesome women.
Emma Watson is another example of someone who I’ve always been a fan of since I was a young girl. She was a child actor, but she went on to be an UN Ambassador after being in many films. She is a massive feminist, and I’ve always loved her because of all the work she does. I think she is a fantastic speaker and a “badass” woman. You’d think someone like her with a huge level of fame from an early age might be arrogant, but I think she’s someone who uses her public fame to do great work for causes she cares about.
Growing into womanhood and work
Honestly, I’m still surprised that I’m about to transition out of my teens and into my twenties. I know it sounds funny, but I still remember moving from childhood to my teen years. It is so strange how fast life moves; time keeps racing by. As young first years, my friends and I thought we’d never become sixth years. We started school as little first years in our stripy shirts, and then we blinked. We couldn’t believe those five years had flown by and we were the sixth years at last.
Suddenly, we were going to graduate soon and do our Leaving Cert in ten months. It was stuff we scoffed at in first year because it was so far away. It was surreal and unbelievable.
A standout moment is when I was getting measured for my graduation ring. Graduation was still ages away, and now, not even a full year later, we’ve graduated, I’m in college, and I’m wearing that ring. There’s so many of those moments that I think about. You get to certain stages, you’re naive about things that are years away, but then suddenly that far off stage is here, it’s happening. Before you know it, you’re doing the thing you always pictured yourself doing.