Elaine Collins

Elaine will always remember my time in Maynooth as one of the happiest periods in her life.  Her studies within the Faculty of Science provided her with a knowledge base and skill-set that helped her to forge a career with Dell over the 12 years. Elaine admits " that even though my science degree brought with it a heavy schedule of lectures and labs, I still found time to enjoy the social aspects of the college with some memorable nights of fun and laughter spent in the LA, the Roost and at SU Bar Extensions. It was however, during a hectic, end of year revision session in the JP2 Library that I met my future husband and even though he was an Arts student, Mick Grogan and I finally tied the knot in September, after almost 16 years together.

Although her academic life got off to a shaky start, after a repeat of first year, Elaine embraced the challenge and after graduation went on to complete a post grad in Applied and Theoretical Statistics. The day after finishing her final exams, Elaine started work in the Department of Finance but after a brief stint (a year) she left the security of the civil service and started work with Dell Inc.  Her first years were spent as a business analyst and after many interesting and diverse roles she is currently the worldwide Director of Customer Experience for Dell.com

Elaine believes that "It is difficult to convey just how much the Maynooth experience gave me, I will always be grateful for the valuable life lessons learned there but primarily it offered me the opportunity to discover how to survive and thrive in an environment unlike anything I had previously experienced."