Maynooth Community College Visiting Meta HQ
FUSE Group Visit Meta HQ at the Grand Canal Dock
On Thursday the 10th of November the FUSE group which is part of MCC’s Wellbeing prgoramme went to the Meta headquarters at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin. We visited the tech giant’s headquarters to listen to the speakers about anti-bullying and empowerment over equality as part of the FUSE programme. FUSE is an anti-bullying and online safety programme which has been developed by Dublin City University’s Anti-Bullying Centre.
We learned a great deal from the presentation regarding how people often react and feel about bullying in schools. One of the most influential speakers was Darren Henry. He spoke about how he was bullied when he went into secondary school and how that impacted his life and the people who cared for him.
After the presentation about anti-bullying and empowerment, content creator Amanda Adé took the stage and talked to everyone about how social media can influence your life and how it influenced hers. Coming from a Nigerian and South African background, Amanda never really saw being a content creator as a future job. Adé quipped, ‘my parents told me the only jobs that I could pursue was a doctor, lawyer or a scientist’. In 2020, when the Black Lives Matter movement was heavily present, Amanda posted a video talking about racism and inequality.
The video content blew up and when Amanda posted videos they had more of an impact as she had a bigger audience. She realised she could reach out to more people and empowered more people to stand up for themselves and the people around them. After her video went viral, Amanda Adé created a new social media account with some of her friends titled @Black_andIrish. This account is a platform to share and tell stories about Irish people and their encounters with racism in Ireland.
We had complimentary snacks and drinks to enjoy during the talks and once the presentations had concluded one lucky school got the chance to try out all of the new advancements Meta had made with technology. One of our 2nd year students concluded that ‘the day was super interesting and educational’.
After we left the Meta headquarters, we strolled past the Aviva Stadium and we were able to see the pitch from the outside as the bottom entrance was open. We then got the train back to Maynooth and a McDonalds before returning to class. Our FUSE group had an amazing experience and a great time at the Meta headquarters.
FUSE is the first research-based Anti-Bullying and Online Safety Programme designed to comply with UNESCO’s Whole Education Approach to tackle bullying and online safety in schools. It is based on 25 years of research on bullying prevention and intervention and is designed to support the wider SPHE/RSE/Wellbeing curricula in schools
Written by 2nd Year students Luke Barry, Hugh Dowling and Sean Miley
