Former Marist student awarded €24,000 Naughton Foundation Scholarship
A former student of Athlone's Marist College has been awarded a scholarship worth €24,000, which was presented to him by An Taoiseach Mr Simon Harris in Dublin.
Donal McDermott was awarded the Naughton Foundation Scholarship at a ceremony in the Trinity Business School in Dublin on Saturday, October 12, after being selected as the Westmeath winner.
The award was presented by founding patrons of the Naughton Foundation, Dr Martin Naughton, and his wife Carmel, who were joined by Taoiseach Harris to hand out the awards and cheques to the winning students.
The Naughton Foundation Scholarship Awards support academic and innovative excellence in Irish students, and are intended as 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.
Donal has accepted a place studying Electronic and Computer Engineering at University of Galway.
He joined 37 exceptional Irish students who were awarded third-level scholarships towards their studies in the areas of engineering, science, technology, and maths.
In addition, Marist College was awarded a prize of €1,000 towards their school’s science facilities, for their support of their winning student.
Since its establishment in 2008, Naughton Scholarships worth over €6 million have been awarded to more than 450 outstanding 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 (€24,000) for each participating county, with some counties awarded more than one scholarship.
Each scholarship is worth €6,000 for each year of a student’s three- or four-year undergraduate degree.
Speaking about the growth and development of the programme over the past seventeen years, Dr. Martin commented; “Both Carmel and I are delighted by the growth of this program and the incredible community of alumni who are doing extraordinary work in education, research and industry at home and abroad.
“Today we are delighted to welcome a new cohort of wonderful young people to join this group and to support and encourage them in a small way with their undergraduate studies in Ireland. We firmly believe that these bright and engaging students who are passionate about their studies in the STEM areas will be Ireland’s leaders and wealth creators of the future.”
Full details on The Naughton Foundation Scholarships are available at www.thenaughtonfoundation.ie. The 2025 application form will be available for completion on the Foundation’s website from February 2025.