Former Marist student awarded Naughton Foundation Scholarship

Former Marist College student Conor McNamara has been awarded a scholarship worth €20,000 from the Naughton Foundation.

Founding patrons Dr Martin Naughton and his wife Carmel recently announced the winners of the 2021 awards with two Westmeath students each receiving a scholarship worth €20,000.

Supporting academic and innovative excellence in Irish students, the Naughton Foundation Scholarship Awards are an investment in the future of Ireland's reputation as a country with outstanding graduates promoting the study of engineering, science and technology at third level.

A former student of Marist College, Westmeath, Conor McNamara has accepted a place in the National University of Ireland, Galway studying Engineering. The other Westmeath recipient, Ruairi Fagan has received a place in University College Dublin where he will study Computer Science, after graduating from Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar. The duo join 37 exceptional Irish students who were awarded third level scholarships towards their studies in the areas of engineering, science, technology and maths.

More than 200 schools have also benefited from this prize to date with some schools receiving it on more than one occasion. Both prize winner’s former secondary schools have received a prize of €1,000 each towards their school’s science facilities, for their support of these students.

Speaking about the growth of the programme over the past twelve years, Dr. Martin Naughton commented:

“We have been awarding scholarships to encourage and reward students for their undergraduate studies in the STEM area since 2008. After the difficult academic year that 2021 was, we are particularly delighted to announce this year’s scholarship winners and their schools. We are both really looking forward to celebrating with them in person in the future and welcoming them to our growing community of Scholars and Alumni.”

The Naughton Foundation are continuing to support a number of programs that promote STEM education to students of all ages in Ireland.

Since its establishment in 2008, scholarships worth over €4 million have been awarded to over 330 students. The scheme started in three counties and has continued to expand annually to become a nationwide scheme in 2016. There is one guaranteed scholarship (€20,000) for each participating county, with some counties awarded more than one scholarship. Each scholarship is worth €5,000 per annum for each year of a student’s three or four year undergraduate degree.