Westmeath student receives €20,000 Naughton Foundation Scholarship award

A former Coláiste Mhuire student, Charlie Drumm, has been awarded a scholarship worth €20,000 to help fund his course in engineering at University College Dublin.

Last week, Dr Martin Naughton and his wife Carmel announced the winners of the 2020 Naughton Foundation Scholarship Awards, which support academic and innovative excellence in Irish students, and Charlie Drumm joins 35 exceptional Irish students who were awarded third level scholarships in the areas of engineering, science, technology and maths.

Charlie’s former secondary school, Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar, received a prize of €1,000 towards its science facilities.

Charlie and his brother James, who are from Delvin, developed the Freshgraze system, an automated moving fence for livestock, with the support of their family, which won the Teagasc Special Award at the 55th BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) 2019.

Last year’s recipient of the Naughton Foundation Scholarship Award in Westmeath was Padraig McDermott in Marist College, Athlone.

The scheme started in three counties and became nationwide in 2016. There is one guaranteed scholarship (€20,000) for each participating county. Each scholarship is worth €5,000 per annum for each year of a student’s three- or four-year undergraduate degree.

Traditionally the awards are presented by founding patrons of The Naughton Foundation, Dr Martin Naughton and his wife Carmel at a ceremony with the students’ schools and families in attendance but as a result of current restrictions that event was deferred for this year.

Dr Naughton said: “We have been awarding scholarships to encourage and reward students for their undergraduate studies in the STEM area since 2008. After the difficult academic year that 2020 was, we are particularly delighted to announce this year’s scholarship winners and their schools.

“We are both really looking forward to celebrating with them in person next year and welcoming them to our community of over 300 Scholars and Alumni.”

The Naughton Foundation is also continuing to invest further in ‘Science in a Box’. The programme for sixth class pupils runs for a number of weeks when PhD students spend one hour each week co-teaching with the class teacher a specific aspect of the science curriculum.

For 2020, The Naughton Foundation is delighted to continue its support of this programme for 30 sixth classes in the Dublin, Meath and Louth region.

The Foundation is also continuing its support of ESB Science Blast, a programme run by the RDS which brings primary school classes from all over Ireland together in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast to display and discuss their science projects.

Midland Science is an organisation which promotes STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] education and skills in the midlands region. It provides activities and workshops all year round through an outreach programme to primary and secondary schools, a regional Science Festival during national Science Week, activities during Engineers Week, Maths Week, Tech Week, STEAM activities, summer science activities in local youth clubs and special projects. The Foundation is delighted to continue its support of Midland Science in 2021.

Full details on The Naughton Foundation Scholarships are available on www.thenaughtonfoundation.ie

2021 application form available for completion on the Foundation’s website from February 2021.