Minister Foley attends Community College Hosted Young Social Innovators Programme

Castleisland Community College project presenters at the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Front from left: Aaron McCarthy, Dónal Ryan and Gabriel Ropela. Back row: Róisín O’Mahony, Charlie Keane, Lucá Federico Herlihy, Muireann Donnelly, Niamh O’Donnell and Hannah Sheehan. Photo by: John Reidy

Minister for Education Norma Foley, TD addressing the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photograph: John Reidy

Minister for Education Norma Foley, TD joined the panel of: Claire O’Toole, CYPSC; Elaine Kennedy, NEWKD; Marie Taylor, TU Shannon; Breda Dwyer, MTU Tralee; Ann O’Dwyer, Kerry ETB and Roger Warnock, YSI CEO at the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photo: John Reidy

Playing to the audience: Drum Dance Ireland duo, Tomasz Wlodarczyk (left) and Urs Wenk adding to the atmosphere of the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photo by: John Reidy

The panel at the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday included: Claire O’Toole, CYPSC; Elaine Kennedy, NEWKD; Marie Taylor, TU Shannon; Breda Dwyer, MTU Tralee; Ann O’Dwyer, Kerry ETB and Roger Warnock, YSI CEO. Photograph: John Reidy

Minister for Education Norma Foley, TD is welcomed by Anne O’Meara, Eileen Costello Rawat, Roger Warnock and Fiona Gomez to the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photograph: John Reidy

Helping with the preparations for the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre were from left: Keevan Ahern, Tara Kerin, Mollie Mahony and Shauna McCarthy from Castleisland Community College. Photograph: John Reidy

Education Minister Norma Foley, TD being welcomed by Kalem Egan (left) and Daniel Murphy to the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photograph: John Reidy

Beating the drums for the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday were: Michael Brosnan, Damiel Murphy, Kian Downey and Katie Kerins from Castleisland Community College; Photograph: John Reidy

Presentation with Style: Causeway Comprehensive School students Maurice O’Donoghue and Mona Fares with their ‘Pop-Up Clothing Shop’ project at the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photograph: John Reidy

Causeway Comprehensive School with their ‘Pop-Up Clothing Shop’ project; Seated: Maurice O’Donoghue and Mona Fares. back from left: Joshua Rochford, Milo Cronin, Grace Conway, Caroline Fitzgibbon, teacher; Seán Slattery and Zach Walsh at the Young Social Innovators Local Community Showcase Event at Castleisland Community Centre on Thursday. Photograph: John Reidy

Young Social Innovators Junior Programme is aimed at junior cycle students i.e students from first to third year.

The students collaborated in teams to creatively address an identified social issue impacting their school or local community.

Schools from specific regions then meet up and present their project to other groups and various panellists.

Investigation and Action

The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, attended the event to hear about the issues that junior cycle students had chosen to investigate and take action on.

A total of 350 students attended from: Castleisland Community College; Causeway Comprehensive School; Coláiste na Trócaire, Rathkeale; Coláiste Gleann Lí, Trá Lí and Presentation Secondary School,Tralee.

The topics the students investigated and spoke about included road safety, biodiversity, homelessness personal safety for girls, cancer awareness, well-being and healthy eating.

Certs and Spot Prizes

All students were awarded certificates for their work along with spot prizes.

Castleisland Community College hosted the event with Ms O Connor and Ms Murphy being the key teachers that co-ordinated the event, along with assistance from transition years.

Castleisland Community College has been actively involved with the YSI senior competition and transition year students have two projects in the national final later this month.

This was the first year for the school to take part at junior cycle. The students explored their topics in their research skills class with help from their teachers Nancy O’Connor, Emily Rice and Brenda Gallagher.

Huge Learning Curve

This class is part of the new Well-being Junior Cycle Programme. The school had three teams that consisted of the three first year classes.

Litter and waste, the housing crisis and mental health as a result of Covid 19 were the themes they examined.

“This was a huge learning curve for our first-year students as they learned the skills of group-work, research and presenting,” said Nancy O’Connor, Research Skills Co-ordinator at Castleisland Community College.

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