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INTERVIEW
(Photo of Patricia Stapleton)
(TAP logo)
MAKING HISTORY AT TRINITY
Patricia Stapleton B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (2003), the first Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) student to be awarded a doctorate, gives a personal account of her educational journey.
I left school at age 15. I worked in various administrative and sales positions until I took a career break when my three children were born.
When my youngest was three, I decided to go back to work. A local unemployment centre offered computers as part of a ‘back to education’ course. I enrolled on the course and was surprised to find that I really enjoyed the challenges that it brought. I attended the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) open day in March 1998, and started the course that October.
I studied philosophy, sociology and history, maths, study skills, educational and personal development. The TAP staff were fantastic, aware that our backgrounds did not train us for college, and that juggling a home life with the demands of a very intensive academic programme was often extremely difficult. They were always there to listen, advise and encourage us.
Even though I was inclined to apply for a more ‘practical’ type career path, when it came to filling out my CAO form History was top of my list. I secured a place and enrolled for single honours History in October 1999.
I kept in close contact with TAP and the staff remained a constant source of encouragement for me when times got tough. My mother died before my first year exams and, just three months before my final exams, my husband died suddenly and tragically. I made the decision to continue and came ninth in my class overall and top of my class for my dissertation. This spurred me on to enrol on the integrated M.Litt/Ph.D. register in September 2003. Financially, college was particularly difficult. TAP helped out as much as they could, supplying a small stipend each month during my undergraduate years. That helped make ends meet. Luckily, for my post graduate studies, I was awarded a studentship from Trinity and later secured a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The work was very demanding and time commitments ate into my family life. However, thanks to the encouragement from the staff in the History Department, other postgraduates, TAP staff, friends and family, I submitted my doctoral thesis – ‘The merchant community of Dublin in the early seventeenth century: a social, economic and political history’. On 11 July 2008, I was awarded my doctorate at the ceremony where honorary degrees were awarded to Robert Redford, John Hume, Dónal Lunny, Robert Fisk and Melissa Webb. Illustrious company indeed, but I felt I had earned my right of passage!
I am now working in the School of Histories and Humanities in Trinity College as extramural officer and I am also administrative co-ordinator of the Semester Start Up Programme. My short-term aim is to write up some articles for publication. In the longer term, if funding allows, I aim to convert my thesis into a book.
Nine years ago I never imagined that I would get a degree, a Ph.D. and end up working at Trinity College. Without the extra funding supplied by TAP, completing my degree would not have been financially viable. Without TAP, I would never have developed the skills and, more importantly, the confidence to apply for a place in College in the first place. I can quite honestly say that without TAP, I would simply not be where I am today.
THE TRINITY ACCESS PROGRAMMES (TAP)
are part of Trinity's contribution to tackling social exclusion, through a range of innovative, targeted initiatives for individuals who, for socioeconomic reasons, have not yet realised their full educational potential.
TAP's mission is to work in partnership across the education sector and with families, communities and businesses to widen access to third level by addressing the reasons contributing to the underrepresentation of lower socio-economic groups and ethnic minorities at third level.
For more information please contact:
Cliona Hannon Programmes Director
e.
channon@tcd.ie
www.tcd.ie/trinity_access
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