Kilbeggan and Moate students take top enterprise awards
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Pupils and teachers of Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, celebrate after being announced as the Most Enterprising School at the Westmeath Student Enterprise Awards. Liam KidneyImage 2 of 2
Senior Category Winner – Left to Right – Christine Charlton, Head of Enterprise, Catherine Darby SEP Co-ordinator LEO Westmeath, Pat Gallagher CE of Westmeath County Council, Summer Feery, Lauren O’Reilly Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, Brendan Gearon, Drakemount Ltd & David Quirke, Wholesome Kitchen. Liam KidneyLocal Enterprise Office Westmeath have announced that winning teenager entrepreneurs from Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, and Moate Community School will represent Westmeath at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Finals.
The finals return to a physical event this year at The Helix in Dublin on Wednesday, May 18, having been held online in 2020 and 2021.
Some 160 students from Marist College; Our Lady’s Bower; St Finian’s College; Loreto College; Wilson’s Hospital School; St Joseph’s Secondary School; Athlone Community College; Castlepollard Community School; and Moate Community School took part in the Westmeath final on Friday at the Golden Island Shopping Centre, Athlone.
The programme supports students to create, design and market their own businesses, with the hope of reaching the national finals.
In the Junior Category, the students representing Westmeath at the national finals are Hannah Higgins, Katie Creggy, Erin Roche and Muireann Lowry from ‘Decorapage’ at Moate Community School.
In the Senior Category, Westmeath will be represented by Summer Feery, Lauren O’Reilly from ‘Framed It’ at Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan.
Special guests at the Westmeath final included Pat Gallagher, chief executive of Westmeath County Council, and judges David Quirke, Wholesome Kitchen, Mullingar, Brendan Gearon, Drakemount Ltd, and Tracey Tallon, senior enterprise development officer, LEO Westmeath.
Speaking at the county final, Catherine Darby, business advisor at LEO Westmeath congratulated the students: "We have a successful student enterprise programme here in Westmeath, and our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme.”
"We wish them the best of luck in May, and we will all hope to be there to support them.
"In what has been a challenging couple of years for students, the programme has offered them an outlet outside of the usual school demands. What our students are learning from the programme is that with the right supports and encouragement, they can take an idea from the classroom and develop it into a real-life business.
"The skills they learn along the way, such as business planning, market research, selling and team-work, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers."
The local students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals, at the Helix in Dublin on May 18.
Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, more than 300,000 students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create a business idea, start a business and grow a business.
The Student Enterprise Programme also has new range of online resources for 2021, 2022 at www.StudentEnterprise.ie, which will feature regular blogs and houses a full range of Student Enterprise resources for students and teachers.
Further information is available at www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.