Loreto student wins trip to Strasbourg
Orlaith Finnegan, a student at Loreto College, Mullingar, has won the overall prize in the Graduate.ie Online Citizenship Programme, and received it at an event in the Radisson Hotel, Athlone last week.
The overall prize, sponsored by the Midland Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force (MRDATF), was for one student from Westmeath who participated fully in the initiative.
Orlaith will travel to Strasbourg in November and spend one full day at the European Parliament where she will have the opportunity to take part in a Youth Parliament (Euroscola) with students from other EU member states.
During her stay she will also visit other places of interest around the city of Strasbourg and surrounding areas.
The Graduate.ie programme is an online citizenship and democracy programme for second level students in Ireland. It is a government and EU funded programme and has been in operation since 2001.
The MRDATF rolled out this initiative in partnership with 25 secondary schools in Counties Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly and invited transition year students to participate.
The programme commenced in September 2024 and lasted for 20 weeks, during which 1,926 students registered to take part, and of these an average of 728 took part on a weekly basis.
Each week, for 20 weeks of the academic year, students logged on to graduate.ie, where they had to answer questions on a range of issues including drugs and alcohol, health and safety, environmental awareness and climate action, democracy and participation, financial literacy, EU affairs, consumer protection, tourism and regional development.
Students were then directed by hyperlinks to the relevant sponsors’ websites, where they carried out researched and then submitted their answers to Graduate.ie.
Weekly winners were randomly selected from all the correct entries, and there was at least one winner each week from across the country.
The overall winner was Orlaith Finnegan.
Antoinette Kinsella, MRDATF co-ordinator, addressing the students at the prizegiving event, said: "I am delighted to be here presenting the winning students with their prizes. This is such a worthwhile initiative, allowing the participants to develop active citizenship, an understanding of the workings of democracy and intercultural understanding and awareness.
"I would like to acknowledge the MRDATF for sponsoring the prizes and the schools who participated in the programme; it was a great opportunity to research and learn more about the dangers associated with drug and alcohol misuse.
"The participation was encouraging and I would like to thank all the students and teachers for their support. It is hoped the initiative will assist in developing life skills such as preparing for the world of work, teamwork, collaboration and valuable insights into the vocational dimensions of life after school.
"I am sure the winning candidate will also appreciate having the opportunity to experience how the European Parliament works by partaking in the Euroscola Youth Parliament and having the opportunity to pose a question in the European parliament."