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Local students ready to represent region at Enterprise awards

March 11th, 2016 7:25 AM

By Southern Star Team

Winners of the Senior Category were Citosc from MICC Dunmanway. From left: Christine Heffernan (LEO); Paraig Galvin; Ryan Croke; Conrad Crowley; Peter Deane; Claire Khan (teacher) and Christine McCarthy (schools co-ordinator)

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Six enterprising West Cork students from Maria Immaculata Community College Dunmanway (MICC) and St Brogan’s Bandon will represent West Cork at the National Student Enterprise Awards in April.

SIX enterprising West Cork students from Maria Immaculata Community College Dunmanway (MICC) and St Brogan’s Bandon will represent West Cork at the National Student Enterprise Awards in April.

 ‘Citosc’ (MICC) won the Senior Category overall prize for their Virtual Reality headset which uses the power of a smartphone to provide an affordable virtual reality experience. ‘Family Branches’ from St Brogan’s took the overall prize in the Intermediate category for their personalised framed family mementos and fingerprint family trees.

 Speaking of their win, Conrad Crowley, managing director of Citosc said that to take first place, in the West Cork finals was a huge achievement as they were up against some great teams. ‘We are thrilled to represent West Cork in Dublin in April and we hope we can go on to do West Cork proud. Until then we have quite a bit of work to do as we work on getting our website up and running to allow us to trade online so watch this space,’ he said.

Other prize winners on the day included ‘Y Knot’, who took second place, from Castletownbere Community School; Stensational Brows taking third place for  Sacred Heart in Clonakilty; ‘Angry Bomb Entertainment’ which took the Best Innovation prize; Blushing Brushes from St Fachtna’s in Skibbereen took the gong for Best Use of Social Media, while Pixie Potions won Best Display for Colaiste Phobail Bantry. Michelle Morgan from Schull Community College also received a special recognition award for Businessperson of the Future.

Speaking at the final of the West Cork Student Enterprise Awards, Kevin Curran,  acting head of the Local Enterprise Office, North and West Cork said: ‘It is extremely encouraging to see the level of enthusiasm of the students at the end of a programme which has given them the invaluable opportunity to see for themselves what it takes to build and grow a business that is their own.’ 

He also thanked judges Ciara Lucy (South Western), Sean O’Brien (Ulster Bank, Bandon) and Aidan Hennessy (Hennessy Timber) for their help.

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