Scholar Louise Finnegan Presents AONTAS Star Award

L-R: Niamh Wynne & Louise Finnegan

On Monday, 2nd March 2020, Uversity Scholar Louise Finnegan along with One Family’s Niamh Wynne presented an AONTAS Star Award to Healthcare Opportunities for Women in Limerick in the ‘Special Recognition for an ESF Initiative’ category. This programme supports women who have been out of work with training and advice to build a career as a healthcare professional.

The STAR Awards ceremony kicked off the AONTAS Adult Learners’ Festival, which runs 2nd to 6th March 2020, with hundreds of events and activities happening nationwide. Regional events may be found here and the full programme for the Festival is available here. 

It was fitting that Louise & Niamh would be asked to present this award as Louise got her own start back to education on One Family’s New Future Programme in 2017.  New Futures supported and prepared Louise to enroll on and successfully complete an Access Programme at Technological University Dublin (TUD).

The transformative impact of learning is evident in Louise’s accomplishments to date. She has been a panel speaker at an AONTAS’ International Women’s Day Policy event, attended an Awareness and Guidance Peer Learning Activity in Luxembourg, gave the keynote address at the New Futures Graduation Ceremony and secured an Uversity Scholarship to enroll on a Honours Bachelor Programme in Social Care at TUD.

Louise’s advice to anyone returning to education is “Start with little steps, take the positive from every situation because there is learning in everything you do.”