This is a subscriber-only article
Dropping out of college isn’t an easy decision to make, and for many, like 20-year-old Alice Murphy from Clonroche, Co Wexford, it can lead to many sleepless nights filled with doubts and what-ifs. But for some, stepping away from the traditional path can open the door to different opportunies.
“I got my first choice on the CAO and I was delighted,” says Alice of the landscape design course in UCD. “Then pretty early on, I started to have doubts about the course. I felt like I wasn’t getting outside as much as I wanted to, and we were in a studio environment, which didn’t suit me. The pressure of projects was quite constant. Then at Christmas, when I came home, I knew that I couldn’t go back.”
Six months after deciding the course wasn’t for her, Alice has not regretted leaving college once. She is now in the middle of completing a year-long diploma in organic medicinal herbs.
Alice has just returned from Estonia, where she represented Ireland and came home with the European Young Upcycler Award for her project ‘Milking It’ at Upcyclart – A Bottom Up Approach to Youth Entrepreneurship for Circular Economy.
Growing up on a dairy and beef farm, Alice always had an interest in agriculture and studied ag science for the Leaving Certificate. While her brothers are more involved on the farm, she has been known to stand in a gap when needed.
She initially chose the landscape design course as it connected her to the outdoors.
“I always loved being out in the garden, it’s my happy place where I went during exams to chill out and relax. I would be a home bird and found it a big adjustment going up to college for a full week,” she says.
Lonely time
When she was considering leaving the course, Alice met with both of her lecturers online and spoke to her student advisor, which she found very helpful.
“It was a really stressful decision. I didn’t sleep for two weeks, I was completely burned out,” she says.
The most comforting thing during that time was hearing from other people who went through the same situation and then moved on successfully.
“I think everyone hits that block at some stage. Where they are questioning what I do next? And it can be very lonely if you don’t have people to talk to,” Alice explains.
Her parents Kevin and Ann were a great support and stayed calm while she navigated her next step.
After taking some time for herself at home, Alice spoke to her local vet, Joe Kavanagh, and he told her about the National Organic Training Skillnet (NOTS).
She found a course in organic medicinal herb growing by Core College in Kilkenny. It is a diploma that is delivered online with 18 practical sessions and is partly funded by NOTS.
“It’s been great because when you leave college, it’s a real hit to your confidence. You question whether you can actually handle college. This course was great because we were doing discussion posts and essays every three or four weeks. It got me back into education and helped me gain confidence again.”
By returning to education, Alice has learned that she can bounce back after tough times.
She later saw an advertisement on Instagram which led her to apply for the European-funded project ‘Upcyclart – A Bottom Up Approach to Youth Entrepreneurship for Circular Economy’.
Her dairy-inspired idea was developed during a series of upcycling design thinking camps held in Y21 Studios, Enniscorthy, earlier this year, as part of Upcyclart.
“It was a lovely way to meet young people, especially because I missed that a lot since leaving college. John O’Connor from the enterprise centre helped with my business plan, and Lynn Haughton, founder of the upcycle movement [her mentor], guided my design.”
Alice came up with the idea of using milk filters from the dairy parlour as insulation in calf jackets. The single-use items add up to a lot of waste generated across the estimated 17,000 dairy farms in Ireland every day.
“I thought of agriculture straight away, because it’s such a huge sector in Ireland. I knew if I could identify a waste stream within it, there’s be such a high volume of supply. Milk filters are a flexible material; they are nice to work with, and you can clean them,” says Alice.
Repurposed tent material is also used in her calf jacket design, giving new life to another material that is wasted at scale here in Ireland, particularly after festivals.
“The name ‘Milking It’ came from the idea that milking something is often thought of as draining it dry, but we’re turning it on its head and were saying, you’re milking it for all it’s worth. I liked how circular it was as well. It came from the farm and comes back to the farm, which I thought was clever.”
After presenting her idea to fellow young upcycling entrepreneurs and judges at Parnu Kunstide Kool in Estonia, the other participating entrepreneurs voted on the projects, and Alice won the Irish award. She was presented with an upcycled trophy and awarded support to the value of €2,000 to develop her business idea in the future.
While Alice’s journey has not been without challenges, she advises students trying to decide on their future course to ‘trust your gut’ and talk to your family and friends.
“Your instinct is normally pretty dead on. A lot of people have done it before, it’s not an uncommon thing, and there are a lot of paths when you get beyond school,” she says.
Alice is now looking into doing a post leaving certificate (PLC) course in nursing followed by herbalism, so she can link the medicine and the practice together. She is also working on developing a full prototype of ‘Milking It’.
Watch this space!
See milkingit@gmail.com
SHARING OPTIONS: