Mayo student awarded €20,000 Naughton Foundation Scholarship

MAYO student Mike Heaney has been awarded a Naughton Foundation Scholarship worth €20,000 at a ceremony in the Trinity Business School in Dublin.

The award was presented by founding patrons of the Naughton Foundation, Dr. Martin Naughton and his wife Carmel, who were joined by Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to award winning students with their accolades and cheques.

Supporting academic and innovative excellence in Irish students, the Naughton Foundation Scholarship Awards are an investment in the future of Ireland's reputation as a country with outstanding graduates promoting the study of engineering, science, and technology at third level.

The County Mayo winner, Mike Heaney, a former student of St. Colman’s College, Claremorris, has accepted a place studying engineering at University College Dublin.

Since its establishment in 2008, scholarships worth over €6 million have been awarded to over 350 students. There is one guaranteed scholarship (€20,000) for each participating county, with some counties awarded more than one scholarship and each scholarship is worth €5,000 per annum for each year of a student’s three- or four-year undergraduate degree.

Mike joins 37 exceptional Irish students who were awarded third-level scholarships towards their studies in the areas of engineering, science, technology, and maths.

His former secondary school, St. Colman’s College, was awarded a prize of €1,000 towards the school’s science facilities, for their support of these students.

Speaking about the growth and development of the programme over the past 14 years, Dr. Martin Naughton said: “We started supporting students in their science and engineering studies in Louth, Meath, and Monaghan in 2008 to give back to our local area. We never imagined what a wonderful community of connected young people the Naughton Scholarship programme would become.

“Our alumni are an incredible group working in the best universities, research institutes and businesses across the world. Each year we hear back from them on the value of this network to them and the connections it has given them across disciplines and Ireland.

“They are a wonderful group of young people that are all giving back to society in their own way that we are very proud to be connected with.”

Full details on the Naughton Foundation scholarships are available on www.thenaughtonfoundation.ie.