Jeans genie Erin wins national schools enterprise award

St. Mary’s School Charleville student Erin Queally (Centre) who won the Best Display Award at the National Final of the Schools Enterprise Programme at Croke Park last week is pictured with fronm left: teachers Gerard O’Donovan and Ann Doherty, Colm Walsh, Local Enterprise Office Mallow, Joan Kelleher, Business Information Advisor Local Enterprise Office Mallow and P. J. McCarthy, Charleville Chamber, at St. Mary’s Secondary School.

CONGRATULATIONS to Erin Queally a Second year student at St. Mary’s Secondary School, Charleville, who won the Best Display Award at the National Final of the annual Student Enterprise Awards which took place at Croke Park Dublin last week.

Representing the Mallow based Local Enterprise Office in Cork North and West, having being placed first in the Regional Final at Corrin Mart in Fermoy in March, Erin won the national award for the Best Display for her Genie product stand in the Junior category at the event. Some 69 schools and 201 students from schools across the country showcase their enterprises at the event. Erin’s product was converting old jeans into pencil cases.

Some 22,000 students competed in the preliminary rounds of the enterprise programme in Junior, Intermediate and Senior categories who were supported by their Local Enterprise Office in the various areas of the country.

This is the second success at national level for St. Mary’s Secondary School, Charleville as last year a team from the school also won the overall award for their ‘Bring Home a Fairy’ Company. This was a tooth fairy home for children with a dental hygiene message that was designed and marketed by the team of Mary O’Leary, Eva Fitzgibbon and Ciara Litchfield.

The student enterprise awards are now in their 14th year and bring the world of business into the classroom helping students to develop enterprise and management skills with, in Charleville and North Cork generally, support from the Local Enterprise Office in Mallow and their teachers Ms Ann Doherty and Gerard O’Donovan at St. Mary’s Charleville. Students conduct their own research and set-up and run their own real life businesses in their relevant categories.

The programme is facilitated by Ms Joan Kelleher, Business Information Officer with Cork North and West Local Enterprise Office in Mallow and acting manager Kevin Curran. The programme plays an important role in helping to nurture and encourage the next generation of entrepreneurs and job creators and is co-ordinated by Ms Yvonne O’Neill.