At the Liberal Arts Commencement ceremony held in the College on June 23rd, Ryan McAvoy was awarded, in absentia, with the trophy for International Student of the Year. As a Study Abroad student in 2005/06 in Portalegre, he attended the Portuguese Erasmus Conference as representative for his host university. At home, he has been active in the European Geography Students Association (EGEA) since his first year in St Mary's. He represented the St Mary's branch at the Annual conference in Greece in 2006 and Krakow in 2008. Indeed, in Greece, he acted as Conference Secretary. He is current Chair of EGEA Belfast and took the lead in organising the 2006/07 Exchange with the Geography Department of Groningen University and the 2007/08 Exchange with Helsinki University. He has raised the profile of St Mary's among the student body of geographers across Europe and has played his part in integrating inward International students into College. Last year as part of the BEI programme he studied at a university in Iowa. At home more recently with the other members of his class he successfully completed a five week on-line unit, part of the Divided Societies module, as a member of an international network of geography students from St Mary's, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and University of Northern Colorado. In September, on return from studying Spanish in Barcelona, he will move straight to Kosice, in Slovakia, some thirty miles from the Ukranian Border where he will take up a post teaching English in St. Thomas Aquinas Gymnasium, a school with which we have recently developed links.