King’s College offers an international exchange athletic training learning experience with South East Technological University (SETU) in Carlow, Ireland. This past semester King’s invited 4 students including Sean Dunne, Luca O’Siochain, Patrick Lacey, and Daniel Costin to spend approximately 14 weeks in the US. The SETU students gained practical skill knowledge similarly to our King’s College athletic training students. The students were assigned to a King’s College preceptor, or multiple preceptors, who are also Athletic Trainers (ATs). The 4 lads truly became a part of the King’s College community in their time with us.
They gained immersive clinical experiences pitch side with our sport teams as well as opportunities to provide individualized patient care in our rehabilitation clinic. We did an emergency care in-service to help them prepare for the semester. The lads were invited to a dinner to start the semester with our President, Fr. Thomas Looney. They also took advantage of our human cadaver lab and have attended classes in which we have brought in guest speakers to talk about strategic planning and public health. They additionally participated in an EKG lab and endocrine lab taking blood sugars. Their culminating experience was to present their thesis research to King’s students and faculty.
The SETU students were not all work and no play, engaging with extracurricular events taking place at King’s and in the local community, including taking in a Baby Pens game, visiting some major east coast US Cities, and all four completing the Scranton Half Marathon! They attended our legislative day at the state capital in Pennsylvania on March 23rd to learn a little bit of civics in America and lobbying for the profession. All the students ended the semester with over 500 hours of experience.
King’s College faculty and students also had the opportunity to visit the SETU campus in October 2025 as a part of their trip to Ireland for the World Federation of Athletic Training and Therapy (WFATT) World Congress.
-Written by Greg Janik – Clinical Professor of Athletic Training
