Bank of Ireland launches 2009 National Student Awards

Teachers and pupils urged to honour their local heroes and share a prize fund of €60,000

Bank of Ireland today (Thursday, 6th November 2008) launched the 2009 National Student Awards and announced that it is now accepting entries for this year’s prestigious awards. All 2nd level schools and students across the country are encouraged to submit an entry for their own local student heroes before the deadline of 23rd January 2009.

The Awards recognise exemplary student performance across a range of competencies and offers participating schools and students a chance of winning a share of the prize fund of €60,000. The 2009 national finalists will each receive €1,500 and an additional €3,000 for their school. From these, one will be chosen as the overall national winner and will be awarded a cash prize of €3,000 for themselves, plus €5,000 for their school. The awards will be presented at a National Awards Ceremony in May next year.

Entering is easy – pupils and teachers nominate the students they believe have excelled in the particular category, complete the entry form and submit an entry before the deadline of January 23rd. Each school can have up to 10 winners – one in each of the five award categories for both junior and senior cycle. The categories this year are Art, Academic, Sport, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Community Spirit and a new category called ‘Groups’ for team initiatives.

All of these school entries go through to the next stage where an independent judging panel will determine 12 winners from each of the eight designated regions. These regional winners will be presented with their award at a series of regional awards events during March 2009.

Finally, just 12 of these regional winners will be selected for the National awards stage of the competition where they will be invited to attend a gala National Awards Ceremony in May 2009 along with their family and school representatives. One of these wonderful students will be named overall National Student of the Year for 2009.