Seven girls who are now 6th year students at Loreto Secondary School, Fermoy, were awarded the title of EU ambassadors in May of last year.
The girls are all studying senior cycle history with Ms Walsh who first introduced the girls to the programme.
The main aim of the schools programme is to learn and promote the European Union and create an awareness among young people of what effects, both positive and negative, it has on Ireland and on Irish citizens.
Maeve O’Callaghan, Fiona Duffy, Caoimhe Dunne, Michelle Madden, Ava Coakley, Ciara Healy and Alicja Pezowicz all played an important role in completing the project and being awarded a distinction at the awards ceremony at Brú Boru Cultural Centre in Cashel back in May.
As part of the project, the girls had information points about the EU dotted around the school building, they organised an EU quiz for first years and a picture quiz testing TY’s knowledge of MEPs.
As part of the project they interviewed students in the school as well as exchange students from France and Germany to find out what basic knowledge young people have of the EU and its effect. The presented a video montage of their work on the day of the finals.
The girls also had to fill out booklets, full reports and analysis according to criteria laid out by the European Parliament Ambassador School Programme which was first launched in Ireland in 2015.
“It opened all of our eyes really and put things into perspective when we learnt more about the impact of being an EU member state,” Fiona told The Avondhu.
Although there was a lot of work to be done, much of it which was independent learning done outside of school hours. The group felt that they worked well as a team as they divided the project out evenly between them.
“We’d definitely encourage anyone who has the opportunity to take part in it to do it. We learnt so much,” said Grainne.
Michelle said that it was interesting to see the links between what they learnt in their EU Ambassadors Programme and what they are learning now their other Leaving Cert subjects.
The girls all thanked their teacher Ms Walsh for all her help and support and for encouraging them to take part in it initially.
