This article is from page 52 of the 2008-04-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 52 JPG
KILNAMONA’S Nuala McDonnell last week walked away with a Certif- icate of Merit from the Teagasc/FBD Student of the Year Competition in Dublin.
Nuala, who hails from Cloongowna in Kilnamona was the only woman to make it into the closing stages of the competition.
She was one of six students to be presented with the certificates of merit by the Minister for Agricul- ture, Mary Coughlan, at the Dublin ceremony last Thursday.
Others to receive certificate were Maurice Bates representing the Port- laoise course, Thomas Mather from Kildare representing Gurteen Col- lege, James Gaffney from Ballyroe
east and Pallaskenry College, Joseph Keenehan from Roscommon repre- senting the Mountbellew College, Patrick Cronin from Cork represent- ing Clonbakilty College and Dermot Daly from ‘Tuam representing the Athenry course.
The overall prize for Student of the Year went to Monaghan farmer Eoin Kerr who represented the Teagasc Agricultural College in Ballyhaise.
After his Leaving Certificate, Eoin completed his FETAC Level 5 and 6 Certificate in Agriculture in Bally- haise Agriculture College, and com- pleted his work placement in New Zealand.
He is likely to enter a partnership with his father at an early date, as a means of expanding their dairy en- terprise. The home farm 1s already
a well established dairy farm of 180 acres, 105 cows and 460,000 litres of milk quota.
“I would like to congratulate all of the students here today on the awards they are receiving. They have clearly excelled in their respective courses,’ said Teagasc director, Professor Ger- ry Boyle.
“We in Teagasc are continuous- ly evaluating our education pro- erammes to ensure they meet the needs of the farmers of the future.
“We have looked at the delivery of courses to provide more flexibility to accommodate the modern student. We have looked at the course con- tent to ensure it equips the students of today and the farmers of tomor- row, and we are looking to prioritise the capital invested in our education
facilities in the future.”
Peter Fogarty from Wexford was presented with the second runner-up award by Minister Coughlan while William Doogan from Donegal re- ceived the third runner-up award.
“There is renewed interest in ag- ricultural education with numbers increasing despite the decline in the number of full-time farmers. De- mand for part-time courses is also strong,’ Director of Education and Development with Teagasc, Donal Ora