Kanturk boffins scoop coveted business award
A QUARTET of brainy boffins from Scoil Mhuire in Kanturk have scooped place in a national competition aimed at uncovering the talents of the next generation of budding Irish entrepreneurs.
The team of Grace O’Brien, Colin Buckley, Jessica O’Sullivan and Matas Karanavicius beat off stiff opposition from 10 other schools to win the prestigious 2019 Griffith Collage National Business Competition.
It has turned out to be quite a momentous week for the foursome, who also took home a ‘Best Business Plan’ award from the North Cork regional final of the Local Enterprise Office sponsored Student Enterprise Programme with their ‘Covet’ mini-company.
Last year the school was the only in the country to have two mini-companies ‘Lonely Sock Inc’ and ‘Heavenly Hair’ in the final of the competition, with the former just missing out on winning top spot.
This year ‘Covet’ managed to go one better, winning €1,000 towards the cost of financing their business plan, a €500 bursary and the privilege of holding onto the Griffith Business Faculty Enterprising School perpetual trophy for the next 12-months.
Prior to the final at the Griffith College Dublin campus each participating school submitted a project plan to help competition judges in their task. On the day the school’s set up their projects at a designated stand with posters, slide-shows and examples highlighting each of their businesses
Griffith College staff and the judging panel then visited each stand to inspect the products and ask questions.
Once the showcase was completed, each school was given five-minutes to present their company to the packed auditorium and three-minutes to answer any questions about it.
After a nerve-wracking wait the Kanturk quarter were unveiled as the 2019 winners, with St Mary’s, Tralee coming second with their ‘Recyclewise’ and St Joseph’s Community College, Mayo coming third with their
Safety’ initiative.
The head of the Griffith College Business Faculty, Seamus Fitzpatrick said the North Cork quartet were worthy competition winners.
“We were very impressed with the quality of business ideas and presentations and it was a pleasure to witness the wonderful entrepreneurial ‘Simple Road spirit of school teams from across Ireland,” said Mr Fitzpatrick.
“The feedback from the participating teams and their very supportive teachers has been excellent and we congratulate not only the overall winners from Kanturk but all of the finalists and wish them every success in their future careers,” he added.