Eureka students named Young Social Innovators of the Year

Students from Eureka Secondary School, Kells, have been named the Young Social Innovators of the Year 2013.

Their project ‘Bring Organ Donation into Education’, aims to educate teenagers about the option of organ donation before they leave secondary school. 

Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, Chairperson and Co-founder, Young Social Innovators and Anne O’Leary, CEO Vodafone Ireland presented the winning students with their awards at a special ceremony following the 12th Young Social Innovators Annual Showcase, which was supported by the Vodafone Ireland Foundation.
Eureka Secondary School, Kells receive €1,500 to develop their project. Earlier this year the students received €1,750 in funding from Young Social Innovator’s Den where the students successfully pitched to a panel of ‘dragons’.
The Young Social Innovators Showcase and Awards event was attended by over 3,000 young people as well as Ministers Ruairi Quinn TD and Joe Costello TD; John O’Dowd MLA, Minister for Education Northern Ireland and Andrew Dunnett, Director, Foundation and Sustainability, Vodafone Group who were on hand to present awards.
Congratulating the award winners and all the participants in this year’s YSI Social Innovation Programme, Sr Stanislaus made a special call for more young people to become involved in social innovation. “Young people bring fresh thinking and new perspectives to social issues that many adults grapple with,” she said.
Over 5,500 young people participated in Young Social Innovators’ project-based social innovation programme this year, undertaking some 350 projects aimed at finding and implementing solutions to the social issues that concern them.
Youth literacy, cyber bullying, youth facilities, farm safety and continuing education for teenage parents were among the issues addressed.