It starts off as a way to boost your CV but becomes far more, reports Louise Holden.

If you have an uneasy feeling that you should be getting more exercise, doing more community work or learning more skills, transition year is a good time to do something about it. Gaisce, the President's Award, is tailor-made for people with a desire for self-improvement, which is why 8,500 students went for the award last year. Almost every participant was from transition year.

To get the coveted Gaisce award on their CVs students must complete four challenges. Some compete alone, but most apply in groups with the agreement of a Gaisce leader (usually a teacher).

The first Gaisce challenge requires participants to commit to an hour of community work a week for 15 weeks. Students can link up with a local community organisation or set up their own project. A group at one Dublin school established an anti-bullying task force and worked with younger classes to raise awareness of the issues surrounding bullying. Another group, in Kinsale, liaised with the local senior citizens' group to provide assistance and company to older people who lived alone.

The second challenge is a personal-development project, again committing an hour a week to the task. This is a very wide category. Many students take up a musical instrument or a language. Candidates are free to take on any new challenge, from oil painting to desktop publishing, as long as they are prepared to stick with it for the 15 weeks and give it their best shot.

The third challenge is to get fit. This is a very rewarding aspect of the Gaisce programme for many students, according to John Murphy, its head. "Many students are quite sporty until second year. Then exams come along and sport falls by the wayside. By the time transition year comes around these students have started to become unfit. The Gaisce award gets them out playing sport again. It doesn't have to be high skill: a regular run is most people's choice for this category. The fact that the Gaisce candidates are working in groups provides an incentive to keep at it."

The last part of the Gaisce challenge is the one-off adventure. Students must choose an outdoor activity, from hiking to boating to an outdoor-activity weekend. It's a great bonding session that gets every student off the couch and out into the countryside. "This aspect of the challenge is the one that students report the most satisfaction from," says Murphy. "We think that life for students is all fun, but in reality many don't get the opportunity to do new and exciting things. This forces them to come up with fresh ideas for ways to spend their weekends."

Most students on recent Gaisce courses set out to improve their CVs and ended up feeling a great sense of personal achievement. "Students are looking for a challenge that is totally different from the academic challenge of school," says Murphy. "Many said that before Gaisce they didn't have enough adventure in their lives. Through the award process they went out to seek adventure for themselves."

If you and your classmates want to take part, talk to your teacher about applying. As the programme takes 15 weeks, the sooner you get started the better. There are training workshops for teachers who agree to be Gaisce leaders. For more details contact John Murphy at 01-4758746