The team is being recognised for their Access Classics outreach project. Their vision is that everyone should be afforded the opportunity to explore the art, architecture, history, languages, literature, and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome. The project visits and host schools and adult education institutions that offer Classics as a subject, and those that do not. These schools are located outside Dublin and in areas of the city currently under-represented at UCD. The aim of their project is to increase awareness of Classical Studies within these schools to increasing undergraduate numbers, increasing the number of potential Classics teachers, expanding the number of schools that formally teach Classics, and more generally enriching the educational experience of second level students. In addition, the team have developed a Transition Year(TY) module for school students which has been approved and rolled out by the Department of Education, and is in the process of designing a website that will further support teaching, learning and engagement. Within UCD, a module, Access Classics, has also been developed in which students on the BA (Humanities) Programme will work to create materials to support the delivery of this outreach work to schools. The project was initiated as a voluntary effort by the three participants, but as the scale and impact of their work became evident the project has been built into their workloads. Together these colleagues have demonstrated tremendous collegiality, creativity, diversity and engagement.
