MERCY COLLEGEChapel Hill, Sligo, Ireland

1. Most likely to become an actressLaura Nicholson

2. Funniest laughOrlaith McKenna

3. Best Chocolate Cake MakerMegan Gethin

4. Best storytellerKirsty Mooney

5. Most smiley studentAoife Somers

6. Most likely to take over the worldOrla Nicholson

7. Be a professional athleteSiubhean Crowne

8. Favourite teacherMs. Mulligan

9. Most likely to be on tvChloe Gethins

10. Most likely to become famousChristina Prestel

11. Most likely to audition for xfactorKeelie Dunbar

12. Neatest and cleanestLauren McNiffe

13. Most like to become a modelSarah McGourty

14. Nicest smileMaria Greene

15. Nicest hairDanielle Flynn

16. Funniest personCaileigh Gaffney

17. Most polite studentTina Culkin

18. Loudest voice in the corridorJade Farrell

19. Overall Mercy Girl of the YearKayleigh McNiffe

Awards

The Big Idea!On the 3rd and 4th of October, TYtook part in ‘The Big Idea’ workshop,and to say the least, I think we all hadgreat craic!Soo..What’s the Big Idea you ask?The Big Idea is an advertising

workshop where we learnt aboutadvertising, and learnt how differentadvertisements and videos were pulledoff. Some of the videos and adverts wewatched were really great and it wasusually the most simple ads and ideasthat caught our attention and made uswant to keep watching.We were then given the task of

creating an ad for Ballygowan that wethought might be suitable for thetelevision. We had to meet the brief ofaiming this ad at young people so asto entice young people to drinkBallygowan. We were all given storyboards to try and bring our story to lifeby drawing each scene out on the storyboard. A lot of the ads had to do withsport, and a lot of them featured ourvery own Niall Horan (of course!).On the second day we got to add

music and voice overs to our ads whichwas brilliant fun! Each group had topresent their ad to everyone in theyear and explain what their ad wasabout. We all had to think of a logoand a slogan for our ad to sponsor.I thought ‘The Big Idea’ was pretty

great and I hope all future TY’s get toexperience it!

Title hereHi, wir sind Christina undVerena aus Deutschland. Wirkommen aus Kempten einerkleinen Stadt in Bayern, derPartnerstadt von Sligo. Wir sind hier in Irland fuer einen2-bzw. 3-monatigen Auslandsaufenthalt. Wir haben unsfuer Irland als Ziel entschieden, da wir viele schoeneSachen von Freunden und Verwandten gehoert haben, dieschon vor uns hier in Sligo waren.Am Anfang war es eine ziemliche Umstellung fuer uns. Das Erste,

was konplett anders ist, ist der Linksverkehr, in Deutschland fahrenwir naemlich rechts. Auch die Schule ist anders, als wire s vonDeutschland gewohnt sind. Die Schule, suf die wir gehen, dassAllgaeu-Gymnasium Kempten, ist mir ueber 1000 Schuelern umeigiges griesser als das Mercy College. Ausserdem traegt man inDeutschland keine Schuluniform und wir sind eine gemischteSchule, das heist in underer Klasse sund Maedchen und Jungen. DasEssen ist auch nicht das selbe wie bei uns, aber es ist locker1 Tritzaller Unterschiede gefaellt e suns hier in Irland richtig gut! AlleLeute, Lehrer, Schueler wie auch unsere Gastfamilien sind wirklichnett und kuemmern sich sehr gut um uns.Ganz Besonders gegaellt uns bieden der Strand, da wir in

Deutschland nicht in der Naehe vom Meer wohnen. Sligo ist einesehr schoene Statd und es macht uns sehr viel Spass durch die vielenkneinen Geschaefte zu bummeln. Dieser Aufenthalt, und auch dasTransition year, das es in Deutschland nicht gibt, sind sehrspannende und tolle Erfahrungen fuer uns.Wir moechten uns hiermit nochmal bei allen bedanken, die uns

diesen schoenen Aufenthalt in Sligo ermoeglicht haben!Thank you! Christina Prestel & Verena Wopperer

We all started off the same, sowhere did things begin to go sodrastically wrong that two thirds ofIreland’s whole population areoverweight or obese? Everybody asksthe same question and all they wantis one straight answer. My answer is:those two words that people seem soobsessed with in today’s world. Theyare money and selfishness. We alldeny it, but deep down we know it’strue. I personally find it disgracefulthat more people die from eating toomuch rather than starvation. Whatdoes this tell us the world has come to?

We have simply become sogreedy that we overload ourstomachs with calories uponcalories of unnecessary andunhealthy junk. But yet, thefurthest we walk to burn offthese excess calories is usuallyonly from the fridge to thecouch.

We all know too well how easy it isto say ‘I’m going to start to cut out allfatty foods from tomorrow on’, but ofcourse that is easy to say whilst we area tucking into a nice bag of greasy,salty chips. The amount of times wehave postponed our new resolutionsto ‘tomorrow’ is uncountable, we allknow deep down there is a fat chanceof us ever getting around toimplementing these changes. I’m no health genius myself, but I

do know a bit of whatever I fancy willnever do me any harm. Moderation iskey. If you match your time spentexercising with your daily calorieintake you can’t go wrong. So, nexttime you open a bar or drink a fizzydrink just think, is it worth a walk orjog, and if not, simply withdrawyourself and don’t eat it. If you haveit eaten without even realising, justkeep away from the sweet aisle in thesupermarket, and instead stick to awell-balanced and varied diet.As Dr Larry Mc Cleary, the author

of the award winning book ‘Feed yourbrain, Loose your belly’ tells us ‘about 80% of products onsupermarket shelves didn’t exist 100years ago’. I begin to wonder is this agood or bad thing?Nowadays convenience and money

seems to influence people’s decisionsmaking the most, whatever the

product is. But good healthynutritious foods aren’t usually ascheap as bulk made foods that arefortified with additives that make themeals so much more unhealthy. But,as people are busy with their lives, thelabels with the long list of E numbersdon’t even get glanced at. Meals getpopped in the microwaves and aregobbled up within a few minutes.Our nation has come to a new low.

We have recently become so lazy thatwe drive from one window of abuilding to another without even themovement of a single joint, to orderour fast food. This doesn’t evenrequire moving from our sittingposition in the car. Are we slowlygoing crazy?As levels of obesity rise I begin to

wonder how bad can things actuallygo? From Barnardo’s studies we learnone in four 9 year old children inIreland are obese. In ten years’ timewill this have doubled or tripled? Orwill the population be a lot lowerbecause of lower life expectanciesassociated with obesity? All you cando is make sure your life isn’t beingshortened because of your eatinghabits.So, we blame money and

convenience on our unhealthy ways.In a recession we all have to save ourmoney, but, are we really savingmoney by buying unhealthy cheapfood? I can assure you the answer isno. It is said obese women accountfor an extra 3,613 euro a year onhealth costs only. We all continue toblame the government for reducingwages and grants and increasingtaxes, but yet, we continue to overeatand as a result our health costs rise.We can all make a difference. Another excuse commonly used is

‘I don’t have time to cook anything,I’ll just get a takeaway’. But, bygetting all these takeaways, we arereducing our life expectancy agewhich is definitely reducing time. Sois it worth it? Medical complicationssuch as heart failure, diabetes,cholesterol, stroke and high bloodpressure are all majorly related toobesity. All of these interfere greatlywith one’s daily life. So, ask yourselfare you digging your grave with yourknife and fork?

EskerRetreat2012On the 11th of September weheaded off to Esker in Athenry,Galway for an overnightretreat. Esker is situatedoutside Athenry village, with amonastery, dorm rooms, diningroom and forest on site. We wereintroduced to the Esker SchoolRetreat team, and played ice-breakers and group activities withthem. We also took part inmeditation, which we foundrelaxing, some people even fell

asleep! Later on in the evening, afterour dinner of chicken curry and rice,we wrote letters entitled “The Real me”or “Dear God”. That night we allwatched a film together beforeheading to bed in our dorm room.The next morning we took part in

Mass Preparation, which involvedsinging hymns and saying prayers,and then attended mass with FatherSeamus in the monastery. We all reallyenjoyed ourselves, and it helped takeour minds off the results coming thefollowing day.

Due to the media, body imagehas become a huge part of ourlives. Girls feel pressured intolooking good all of the time.They strive to be perfect andjust like how so many celebritiesare portrayed in the media. Thisis unrealistic as all images in themedia are edited by Photoshop. Theymake the models and celebrities looktaller, thinner they make their skinlook better. I find this bad, ascompanies are portraying a falseimage of their product when theyedited the models image, as theydon’t find them “good enough”. Thisimage of perfection is a false image.This image is impossible to achieve.In a recent survey of 8 to 9 year oldsin Cork City most are not happy withtheir bodies, they want to be thinner.

The shocking thing is they are all of anormal size. It was also found thatgirls want boys to be thinner and viceversa. These findings are shocking aswe would assume children at such ayoung age have no interest in theperfect body image.It does not help that most young

girls idols are those who are picturedin a magazine regularly. Thesecelebrities are famous for beingfamous. They do not help others andthey don’t change things for thebetter. A survey has shown for girlsunder the age of 12 the top rolemodel chosen was Rihanna. Rihannahas been sexualised by the media,she has also openly smoked cannabis,is this the best person our youngpeople should be looking up to? Sheis a bad role model for girls under 12.

Most people would rather see KatieTaylor as these girls role modelbecause she has worked extremelyhard to reach her goals. She hassacrificed many things but it hasworked to her benefit.Many girls cannot leave the house

without wearing makeup. It isalso the same with olderwomen, it makes them feelconfident. But should we not beconfident in our skin with outadding anything to it? Somegirls are embarrassed to gowithout makeup, they don’twant people to see theirimperfections. They don’t wishto be seen not looking “perfect.” Boysdon’t have a huge interest in whatthey look like, they burp and fart inpublic. Girls should be moreconfident with their bodies andthemselves. They have to live with itfor the rest of their lives so theyshould accept the way they are.

Megan and I went on workexperience in Kiss HQ in Dublinoutside the allocated dates. Wewere extremely excited for ourweek in Dublin. On Monday wewere introduced to the receptionist,Megan Keenan, she was going tolook after us for the week and we alsogot a tour of Kiss HQ. We were givena sheet and a computer to make acalendar for the upcoming monthsfor the magazine. We had to include

celebrities’ birthdays, concerts andfun facts. On Wednesday we werebrought into town with Corina, thestylist, to collect bags of clothes fromshops. When we got back to the officewe had to put masking tape on theshoes so when worn the next day theywould not be damaged and the shopscould sell them on again. The photoshoot was on Thursday it was besidethe Grand canal. We had to constantlybring the model into the hotel to

change and warm up. The photo-graphs would be in the February issueof Stellar so the photographer had tomake it look like the pictures weretaken in springtime. It was amazingto see behind the scenes of a photoshoot. The next day we had to take allthe clothes back to the shops. We hadan enjoyable week shopping andhaving fun. It was an amazingexperience to see behind the scenesof our favourite magazine.

Kiss Magazine Work Experience

Body Image

RSA DayOn the morning of Septemberthe 12th, before we received ourJunior Certificate results, ouryear took part in a RSA Road-show. This took place in St. StephensStreet carpark. The Road SafetyAuthority Roadshow taught us aboutthe importance of wearing a seatbeltwhilst in a car. They had a 'RolloverCar Stimulator' along with amotorbike teaching us the importanceof staying within the speed limit. TheRoll-Over Car stimulator was a real carwhich turned over a full 30 degrees.We felt the force of gravity when thecar was upside down and realised thedanger if we weren't wearing anyseatbelt at all.

See-Food Diet

Bridge 21On the 26th and 27th ofNovember, Ty’s took part inBridge 21. We travelled toDublin and made our way toTrinity College to meet theBridge 21 team. Bridge 21 is acourse students take to try and lettheir creative side out by playingdifferent games and working inteams to make an advertisement.Each team had a differentproduct that was based onsomething we wanted in thefuture, and we had to make an

advertisement and poster out ofit. We were allowed to go aroundthe city to film the advertisement,and it was really fun! Some of theproducts included chocolate tomake you grow taller called‘Chocotall’, a bracelet thatdoubled as a teleporter and awardrobe with a never endingsupply of clothes.It was a really good day, and

to top it all off we got to goshopping in the city afterwards!

Nowadays weight levels affect people of all ages, race and religion.It is one thing that everybody in the whole world has thoughtabout, one thing we all have in common. But when we hear theword ‘obesity’ what do we think? Well, according to the WorldHealth Organisation obesity is simply excessive fat that can impairhealth.