Presentation Castleisland are Double All-Ireland Student Enterprise Winners 2018
The journey started in September 2017 when the new First Year students began their time in Presentation Secondary School, Castleisland. The girls were introduced to the Student Enterprise Programme by their Business Teacher, Mr. Dargan, who guided them through the entire year. The process began with idea generation and the journey included prototyping, marketing, sourcing finance, production and selling.
On Friday 16th March, three groups were selected from the school to enter the Student Enterprise County Final in IT Tralee. Two First Year groups were entered into the Junior Category and one Third Year group into the Intermediate Category of the competition. The two First Year groups were: ‘Complete Camán’ who made an all-in-one training hurley for all ages and abilities. Each hurley was tailored made and had two elements: educational and training. The hurleys are educational as the have the names of each part of the hurley scribed on them along with colour coded hand prints, which show the correct position to places your hands on the hurley. The training element of the hurley is that all aspects of the game of hurling can be practiced by the individual as there is a tethered ball attachment on each hurley. The other First Year enterprise was ‘Blockout’, a smart phone radiation reducing charging box. This box can fit any size smart phone and is lined with lead which reduces the amount of radiation that is emitted from smart phones, particularly when charging beside your bed at night. The Third Year enterprise was ‘Wear N Tear’, who manufactured tailored made sports compression shirts with velcro pockets that can be attached to various areas of the upper body with a hot/cold pack inside to aid muscle recovery after training.
16th annual Local Enterprise Offices’ Student Enterprise National Finals in Croke Park. Pictured are (LtoR) Katie Cotter (13), Fiona Brosnan (13), Chantelle Broderick (13), Joanna Moynihan, (14) and Tara Enright (13) from Presentation Secondary School, CastleIsland, Co. Kerry, won top award in the Junior Category.
On the day, Presentation Castleisland was the most successful school as they scooped all the awards in the Junior Category: 1st Place – Complete Camán, 2nd Place – Blockout and won the overall prize as the ‘Most Enterprising School in Kerry 2018’. The Complete Camán group also received a €50 voucher for the ‘Best Use of Irish’ on the day and as county champions, would now represent Kerry on the national stage.
On May 2nd at 4.30am five Presentation girls left the Kingdom in pursuit of National glory at the 2018 Student Enterprise Awards National Final in Croke Park. The girls were taking their county title winning enterprise project, the ‘Complete Camán’, on the long road to Croker. This is the second time in three years that Presentation Castleisland has reached this prestigious event, in which over 22,000 second level students participate in each year. Reaching the final itself puts the girls in the top 1% of student entrepreneurs in the country. On the day the girls faced stiff opposite in their Junior Category from the county champions of each county. However, they scooped two national titles. Firstly, the girls won 1st Place in the Junior Category. Secondly, they won the Best Awareness of Intellectual Property also in the Junior Category. A project that started off in a classroom in Castleisland has now reached all corners of the globe including New York, Shanghai and Sudan to name just a few, in the space of nine short months. Well done girls on this phenomenon achievement!
Wild Words Young Adult Masterclass Programme
During the TY year, Siobhan Brosnan and Grace Daly, students from Presentation Secondary School, Castleisland, submitted short stories for the Wild Words Short Story Writing Competition. They were selected for inclusion in the 2018 anthology. They were also invited to attend the Writing Workshops during the Summer. These are Master classes for budding young writers between the ages of 14-17. Grace Daly was able to attend and following is her account of her time there.
On the last weekend of June, I attended the Wild Words book festival, a young adult writing workshop, held in Carrick-on-Shannon over the course of a weekend. We were introduced to three successful Irish writers, Colm Keegan, Dave Rudden and Anna Carey. Although they were all interesting and talented, I enjoyed Colm Keegan the most. He helped me discover an interest in poetry and pushed us out of our comfort zones by making us write about the one genre of book we disliked the most.
Overall I really enjoyed the weekend as it gave me time to write, listen and discuss ideas with the new friends I made during the festival. I am very appreciative to have had the opportunity to attend the workshop and would recommend it and the beautiful town of Carrick-on-Shannon to anyone considering taking part in it next year.