TY students full of confidence ahead of Enterprise Finals

Transition year students Grace O’ Donnell and Jada O’ Connor from Coláiste Pobail Ráth Chairn are preparing to represent Meath at the Student Enterprise Programme National Final next week after winning the senior category at the county final in the competition.

Their project, ‘A Girl's Guide to Confidence’, saw them create a book for teenage girls covering various topics to help a girl as she grows up.

"At the beginning of the school year, our business teacher Máistir Mc Gowan presented the class with the opportunity to create a business or a product for the Meath Enterprise Challenge Competition. We decided to create a book for teenage girls. In our book we have all the things a girl needs to know as she grows up," explained Grace.

The book has four sections: Self-care, School, Mental Health and Life. In the school section, there are study tips, tips on how to make friends, what to buy for back to school and much more. The Self-care section includes makeup tips, period tips, hair care tips etc.

The Mental Health section, has a list of emergency organisations, breathing exercises, how to deal with stress and many more important topics, while the life section has monthly and daily reflections, period trackers, doodle pages and much more.

The girls won first place for Best Start Up Business in the Meath Enterprise Challenge winning €600 for their school and €600 for themselves.

Jada said: "After that competition we knew we wanted to further our business because we knew how important the service we were providing was. Another business competition was brought to our attention at the beginning of the year ‘Local Enterprise Office – Student Enterprise Programme’, and we knew we needed to make sure our book was at its highest standard before entering the competition."

"We spent months perfecting our book but something we’ve learned throughout this experience is ‘Anything worth having never comes easy’ and if you’re not passionate about what you do it won’t go far," added Grace.

Jada told how their category was the last to be announced at the Local Enterprise Office Meath Finals in Knightsbrook Hotel, and said they were "on the edge of their seats" as they waited to find out if they had won.

"It felt like time was moving in slow motion. There was silence in the audience as they read the winner of our category. Then they called out our names. We were overjoyed and ecstatic. We went on to win the overall prize for Meath and we are going to be representing Meath in Croke Park on 5th May," said Jada.

Reflecting on their project, the girls said the were faced with many highs and lows in the months taken to complete their book. "Some of the highs we experienced were winning both competitions for Meath and spending time with each other to design our pages.

"Some of the lows were having difficulties with copyright which led us to changing the book which made us start all over again. Another low we were faced with was our book being printed the wrong way. But had we not had those setbacks, we wouldn’t be where we are now!

"Working together has been a dream and we are so grateful to get to experience all the highs and lows with each other as not only business partners but best friends."

Grace and Jada thanked their family, friends and teachers who have been with them since day one and have watched their idea become a reality.