Study Ireland – Stories & Guides from International Students

In this personal blog, Jade O’Donovan, an Erasmus exchange student from Zimbabwe, describes her experience playing Hockey in the University of Limerick Hockey Club. 

Joining a club or society at UL can be a bit overwhelming with so many to choose from. When I decided my exchange, one of the first things I wanted to do was join the hockey club at UL. It is a sport I used to play in secondary school, and I was really eager to pick it up again.  

As I was unsure of my skill level (having not played for three years) I went to the clubs and societies fair that is held at the beginning of every semester – which allowed me to get all the information that I needed about sign up, membership fees, practice times etc. This also gave me the opportunity to speak to other sports clubs and weigh my options. One thing that I found very common from all the representatives that I spoke to, were that all levels of experience were welcome. This was accommodated through having different training sessions for beginners, or introduction weeks which I found comforting especially when trying boxing for the first time.  

My ultimate choice was field hockey, which I paid €20 for the entire year. Joining a club helped me find my feet as an exchange student. I was able to meet new people from different studies, courses and ages which I would have likely never crossed paths with otherwise. In addition to that it was a great opportunity for me to stay fit and keep my competitive streak alive. 

We had a few friendly matches against other Universities around Ireland such as NUIG in Galway and MTU in Cork. These were great team bonding and travel opportunities (especially because I hadn’t seen much of Ireland). I was part of a mixed men’s and women’s team which was new to me but equally interesting, competitive, and fun as the women’s team I was used to playing in. 

Playing hockey gave me a sense of belonging and stability at UL as we had weekly training, and I could confidently say I made important friendships during my time on the field. Coming in as one of the very few international students to the hockey session, I had never felt more welcome and quickly learnt a lot about the Irish culture. It was a true introduction to Irish students as majority of the time; I was around a lot of other internationals.  

Ultimately, nothing bonds people quite like sports does. Joining a club or society will broaden your social circle and allow you to meet people from all sorts of different walks of student life. Staying fit and active is significantly easier when you have others to motivate you and set sessions set in place. I for one, looked forward to my sessions every week and used it as a bit of a de-stress from studying, after all – there’s so much more to university than classes.