Schull and Beara students are top social innovators

Pupils from Schull Community College are pictured with Minister Alan Kelly TD as the college received the bronze award at the Young Social Innovators of the Year awards and showcase 2015, held in Dublin.

WEST Cork was well represented in this year’s Young Social Innovators of the Year 2015 Awards.

Both Schull Community College and Beara Community School won prizes in the prestigious competition.

Over 5,000 young people, all of whom had been involved in creating social innovation projects, attended the awards ceremony in Dublin.

Schull Community College achieved a bronze award overall for their ‘Blind Consumption’ project, guided by Carol Hurley.

Beara Community School’s project on Disability Accessibility, guided by Catriona Murphy, won an award in the Making our World More Inclusive and Poverty Free category.

Scoil Phobail Beara TY students with their Young Social Innovator project ‘Are You My Type?’

A second project, guided by Marie Murphy, entitled ‘Are You My Type?’, on the subject of blood donation, won in the Making Our World Healthier – Physical Well Being category.

As well as the overall award, 25 other schools from across the country were named as category winners and received beautiful new awards designed by John Rocha for Young Social Innovators.

The ‘Are You My Type?’ group has just been invited to present their work to the Joint Oireachtas Health and Children Committee while the Disability Acessibility group is currently finishing the development of its app. See next week’s Star for more information on the ‘Are You My Type?’ project, which has prompted the return of the Blood Transfusion Board to Beara.