Awards
Awards such as The Young Environmentalist, One Good Idea and the Gaisce Award, provide huge personal development for students, providing them with opportunities to upskill in areas that they are not available in the standard curriculum.
The Young Environmentalist places an emphasis on personal development and student empowerment. The awards honour the work of young people to protect, conserve and enhance the environment through local environmental projects, making a difference to their lives and the lives of others both locally and globally.
ECO Leader Award 2017
Susan Adams
I won ECO UNESCO’s ECO Leader of the Year 2017 for supporting Newpark School and Kill of the Grange National School in winning environmental awards in the Young Environmentalist Awards 2017. Newpark School won the Young Environmentalist Awards again under my leadership in 2018 for becoming Ireland’s first single-use plastic free school. These winning action projects are a direct result of the modules that I run with primary and secondary schools.
Young Environmentalist Award Winner 2018 - Plastic Outta the Park
Newpark School - Ireland's First Single Use Plastic School
The students eradicated plastic from their school by the introduction of writing a new school policy, the school diary has educational plastic facts and a pledge for each student to sign. Parents and students were both surveyed and petitioned as a declaration of support.
Newpark School Young Environmentalist Award Winners 2017 ‘Algae-tecture’
Kill O’The Grange National School Young Environmentalist Awards 2017 - The Eco Pirates
Kill O’The Grange National School, won the Super Junior category in Eco Unesco’s Young Environmentalist Awards in 2017, under my supervision. The group campaigned to introduce a bottle bill scheme into Ireland. Their project reached over 2000 people. This was achieved by collecting 500 signatures for their petition, which they presented to Cathairleach Cormac Devlin, they created their own website, media cover in the local newspaper, a play, a garden project, they piloted a bottle return scheme in their school, collecting 1659 bottles over 3 lunch times, they showcased their project in the local library, they received sponsorship from Supervalu and much more.