Exceptional Mayo student awarded €20,000 scholarship

MAYO student Thomas McCarthy has been awarded a Naughton Foundation scholarship worth €20,000 at a ceremony in Trinity College Biomedical Science Institute in Dublin.

The award was presented by founding patrons of The Naughton Foundation, Dr. Martin Naughton and his wife Carmel, who were joined by Mr. Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Education and Skills.

Supporting academic and innovative excellence in Irish students, this scholarship award is an investment in the future of Ireland's reputation as a country with outstanding graduates.

A former student of St. Gerald’s College, Castlebar, Thomas has accepted a place at Trinity College Dublin studying physical sciences and he joins 36 exceptional Irish students who were awarded third level scholarships towards their studies in the areas of engineering, science and technology.

Since its establishment in 2008 scholarships worth over €4 million have been awarded to more than 200 students, the scheme started in three counties and has continued to expand annually to become a nationwide scheme in 2016.

There is one guaranteed scholarship (€20,000) for each participating county, with the exception of Cork and Galway where there are two scholarships awarded and four for Dublin.

Five additional Scholarships are also to be awarded. Each scholarship is worth €5,000 per annum for each year of a student’s three or four year undergraduate degree.

Speaking about the growth of the programme over the past 11 years, the Dr. Martin and Carmeol Naughten commented: “Eleven years ago we envisaged a small scholarship program to help support local students studying the STEM subjects. We never imagined this group of over 200 students and alumni nationwide who are connected across the universities and STEM disciplines and we couldn’t be more proud of the unique community they are developing.”

Thomas’s former secondary school, St. Gerald’s College, Castlebar, was also presented with a prize of €1,000  towards their school’s science facilities, for their support of these students.

More than 160 schools have benefited from this prize to date with some schools receiving it on more than one occasion.