Author Archives: Stephen Robinson

Champlain College visit the film set of The Vikings

Here’s how Ireland works.  It’s all about who you know.  I happened to be introduced to a fellow Canadian named Jeff Woolnough at a US Embassy Christmas party, and of course we spoke of hockey and Canadian poVikingslitics.  It turned out that Jeff was in Ireland as Director of the TV series The Vikings, currently being filmed at Ashford Studios in County Wicklow, about 30 miles south of Dublin.  With Champlain College having a Filmmaking program, I asked if he could arrange for us to visit the set for an afternoon. ‘Not a problem’, he said, ‘we’ll take care of you’.
So, this week myself, Ian Oliver (Champlain Dublin faculty teaching our Creative Dublin course), and six students made the trek to the studio and spent a delightful few hours watching several scenes being filmed getting a tour of the various sets.  We’re not allowed to reveal anything about what we saw, nor could we take photos, but suffice to say this is a very impressive and massive production.  We saw the indoor sets, outdoor sets including a Viking village and large pool for filming boat scenes, the costume, special effects, and prosthetic departments.  We chatted to the director, cinematographer as well as production assistants to get a view of how such a complicated TV series get made.
Huge thanks to Director Jeff Woolnough and Production Assistant Andrew Burke for facilitating our visit and being such fantastic hosts.
-Dr. Stephen Robinson
Director
Champlain Abroad Dublin

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Earth Science with a twist

In addition to be the campus director, I also teach SCI 155 – Environmental Earth Science.  We manage to cover all of those topics any introductory earth science should cover (you know…rocks, minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, climate etc….).  But, I also like to assign a book for class discussion that may not make it onto […]

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VIP Visit to the Dublin Campus

Recently we were treated to a visit from some Vermont-based VIPs.  Visiting were Champlain’s new President Donald Laackman, new Provost Laurie Quinn, Senior VP for Finance and Administration David Provost, and Senior International officer James Cross. The visit was mainly to acquaint the new administration with all that we do here in Dublin; academics, social, cultural….all […]

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Visitors from Vermont!

We had two fantastic visitors from Vermont to our Dublin campus this week.  Paula Willoquet-Maricondi, Dean of Communication and Creative Media, and Suzanne Glover, Program Director for Graphic Design and Digital Media were here for two days at the start of the week.  The aim of the visit was to discuss ways in which the […]

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Champlain Dublin students attend US Embassy event

Champlain College Dublin students were invited to a U.S. Embassy event last night to celebrate the importance of the J1 visa scheme and links between Ireland and the U.S.A.  The event was hosted by the embassy Charge D’Affaires Stuart Dwyer, with guest speaker Irish Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Joan Burton.  All speakers spoke at length […]

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Fall 2014 semester off to a great start!

The Fall 2014 students were met at Dublin airport by Director Dr. Stephen Robinson on August 19, ready to begin their Irish adventures. Orientation was held over 3 days and covered all of the critical information on health and safety, program policies, and living in Dublin.  Afternoons during orientation were for activities designed to help […]

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