NATIONAL AWARD FOR ROSCOMMON STUDENTS AT ENTERPRISE FINALS
Students from Roscommon were awarded the Special Achievement Award at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Finals. The Finals of the Local Enterprise Office initiative took place last Thursday in Mullingar.
Supported by Local Enterprise Office Roscommon, the students from Roscommon Community College won the Special Achievement Award. The winning students were: Isaac and George Naughten who worked under the guidance of their teacher, Denise Staunton. Their student enterprise was called: ‘“Beo go Deo”., which is an innovative Irish lifestyle brand creating natural flavoured beverages using sustainably sourced ingredients.
Representing Roscommon in the Senior Category of the competition were Darragh Conroy and Oisin Connolly from Roscommon Community College with their project “Split Smart”.
The event was hosted by broadcasters Rick O’Shea and Ruth Scott, and they were joined during the ceremony by Alan Dillon, T.D., Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail to announce the winners across the three main categories on the day.
Alan Dillon, T.D., Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail, said; “This is one for the great days for Irish entrepreneurship in the country. We get a chance to see almost 90 businesses started by secondary school students from across the country who have all been shortlisted for the finals and that in itself is an amazing achievement from the 30,000 pupils who started last September.
“These are students who have come up with brilliant ideas and forged them into businesses, making sales and understanding and learning the skills it takes to become an entrepreneur. No matter what path they choose in life those skills will stand by them but we hope that many of the students we see today will go on to become the start-up leaders and entrepreneurs of the future in this country.”
There were 88 student businesses in contention across three main categories for the Final in what is Ireland’s largest entrepreneurship programme for second level students.
Enda Cannon Acting Head of Enterprise said;“Year on year the Student Enterprise Programme continues to showcase the very best of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst our secondary school students. We see every year that the National Finals are not an end point for our student entrepreneurs, but a stepping stone on the next stage of their entrepreneurial journey. From our class of 25/26 we hope to see some of our next great wave of Roscommon business leaders and global entrepreneurs emerge.”
The Student Enterprise Programme is open to students of all ages at secondary level, with three separate categories - Junior (1st year), Intermediate (2nd and 3rd year) and Senior (4th, 5th and 6th year, LVA, LCA and Youth Outreach).
The three main category winners on the day were: ‘GloHurling’ set up by Cathal Sweeney from Mungret Community College, representing Local Enterprise Office Limerick (Senior Category Winner), ‘Smart Shovel’, a business set up by Aodhan Finegan and Leon Egan from St. Patrick’s Classical School Navan representing Local Enterprise Office Meath (Intermediate Category Winner), and ‘I Can’ set up by Paddy Lynch and Tom McDonald from St. Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise representing Local Enterprise Office Laois (Junior Category Winner).
