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Lauren off to Royal College of
Surgeons
09.09.10
Moville girl wins dream
scholarship
by Linda McGrory
A MOVILLE teenager is still struggling to believe
she has won a dream scholarship to study pharmacy at
the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.
Lauren McDonald will now have all her college fees
and accommodation costs covered for the next five
years - right up to Masters degree level - after
scooping the coveted Kiran Pathak Scholarship for
Pharmacy at the prestigious Dublin college.
There is only one such scholarship awarded to a
chosen student each year. Lucky
Lauren will now get to live rent-free and study in
the heart of Dublin city, at the RCSI campus on St
Stephen's Green.
The 17-year old local girl got word of her good
fortune just a half-hour after she collected her
Leaving Certificate results last month from Moville
Community College. |
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Lauren McDonald with her proud mum,
Kathleen. |
“I was really happy
with my results, but I knew it was going to be a
long and anxious wait for the first round offers to
come out from CAO the following Monday.
"But around half an hour after I collected my
results from school, I received a phone call from
the Royal College of Surgeons asking me to verify my
results with them as they were currently in a
meeting and had an important decision to make."
"Maria Kelly from the RCSI rang me back to say that
they where making me a personal offer of a place on
the pharmacy course there and to top it off, they
were also offering me a scholarship. I just could
not believe what I was hearing. I was speechless, so
much so that Ms Kelly rang back again and asked this
time to speak to Mammy," beamed Lauren.
The RCSI judges were impressed by her commitment to
her studies and her desire, from a very young age,
to study pharmacy.
She helped demonstrate this through her four years
of Saturday and summer work in Liam Grimley's
Healthwise Pharmacy in Moville and a week's work
placement in the pharmacy department of Letterkenny
Hospital.
Proud mum, Kathleen said: "She was appreciative of
this as it really gave her the insight into the work
of a pharmacist."
Lauren was encouraged last March to apply for the
top scholarship by Moville Community College vice
principal and former career guidance teacher, Eamonn
Ryan, who was aware of her great interest in the
subject. She then had to demonstrate to the
scholarship panel why she was the best candidate for
the lucrative package including a personal
statement. It appears the judges were impressed by
the teenager's strong commitment to pharmacy as well
as her considered opinions on swine flu medications.
But Lauren still needed an excellent Leaving
Certificate and this she got, with the talented teen
also receiving offers to study Pharmacy at Trinity
and the University of Ulster in Coleraine. She has
since been the toast of all her delighted friends
and family including dad Eamon and granny Maria
McColgan.
The Kiran Pathak Scholarship was set up by the
Pathak family in memory of Kiran Pathak who was
tragically drowned along with his wife and two
children while on a holiday to Kenya. The fund was
established to support a range of pharmacy
initiatives including the scholarship for a student
with a desire to study pharmacy.
Kathleen added: "All that Lauren has achieved she so
deserves, because she really committed herself to
her studies and gave up all her other commitments
outside of school. I can tell you I don’t know what
it must be like to win the Lotto but it could
certainly not have felt any better than this."
Lauren and her mum had a tour of the
campus last week ahead of the teenager's first day
of lectures on September 27. |
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