Esmeraldi Doda, 1st Year Grame Design

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Esmeradli Doda is 1st year student of Game Design at DIT Auniger Street. Esmeraldi is originally from Serbia. His family fled there in 2011 and are asylum seekers. Since his family arrived in Ireland in Ireland they have been living in direct provision centres in Dublin. 

Esmeraldi went to CBS in Westland Row where he took part in a number of programmes for schools run by the DIT Access team and while he did pass his leaving cert he didn’t meet the minimum entry requirements for his course. At the time he felt demotivated because he knew if he did go to college his family couldn’t afford the fees and as an asylum seeker he wouldn’t be eligible for a grant.

Despite the challenges he had the opportunity to take part in the Access Foundation Programme, a one-year pre-entry programme which supports students to meet the minimum requirements. It was his great love of the PlayStation that led Esmeraldi to choose Game Design at DIT.

Today, Esmeradli is enjoying his first year despite its challenges, he describes his experience in DIT as:

‘a new life, I didn’t have many friends in school’.

At one stage he was ‘just barely hanging on’ and thought he would have to leave college due to the struggle of paying his fees of €3,800. He is very involved in student life and active within the student union as well as the Drama Society.

He is really hopeful that his family’s status will change soon and they can settle in to their life in Ireland where his parents can work and he can attend college without crippling financial concerns. He sadly describes the wait of his parents and siblings as ‘a living nightmare’.

Due to the restrictions of his asylum status Esmeraldi is not able to apply for free fees like many other students at DIT. He therefore is reliant on the support of donors to help ensure he can stay in college and have the future he dreams of.