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Our Scholars

What distinguishes Uversity's Scholars is their commitment to being transformed and transforming others as a result of the Scholarship and educational experience.

Uversity Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

Meet Our Scholars

These brief profiles of Uversity’s Scholars provide an indication of their diverse experiences, locations, and disciplines. They are unified by their inspirational ambition and determination.

Ciara

Ciara Hicks

Hayden

Hayden Nightingale

Karen

Karen Horan

Michelle

Michelle Murray

Octavian

Octavian Visan

Patrick

Patrick Lynch

Ciara Hicks

Ciara worked in the gaming sector prior to returning to education initially at the Cork College of Commerce.  After her degree, Ciara intends to complete a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.  She eventually wants to “work as a mental health professional in Cork City in the public sector and provide therapies and support to people who need it and improve people’s quality of life.”

Hayden Nightingale

Hayden was motivated to return to education when he gave up his job to move back home to help care for his mother. Knowing that he “wasn’t living up to his potential” and wanted to find a career he had a passion for, he enrolled on Belfast Metropolitan College’s Access Diploma in Mathematics and Computing.  After his degree, Hayden may pursue a Master’s in Corporate Governance and hopes to specialise “in the programming development side of the IT industry and more long term work on a self-employed basis and develop my own company.”

Karen Horan

Karen was brought up in a working class community and experienced the difficulties faced by the community in relation to equal justice.  By working for Inclusion Ireland she built up skills in information provision.  She went onto volunteer as a Citizen Information Officer, where she developed a passionate interest in Law.  She recently joined the National Advocacy Service as the National Administrator where she works full-time while completing her degree.  Karen intends to use her legal knowledge to give back to the community that has given her so much.

Michelle Murray

Michelle’s passion is for animal welfare, particularly horses.  In 2016, she set up a project to support equine health and education with the Kildare Traveller Action group.  She subsequently completed a Community Development & Leadership course prior to enrolling on her degree. She recently completed a Level 7 Certificate in Youth Studies at Maynooth University.  Her ultimate aim is to set up a mobile equine health unit to help horse owners in disadvantaged and rural communities that struggle to access veterinary care.

Octavian Visan

Octavian worked for many years as a Hotel Receptionist prior to setting up his own tennis equipment business in 2014.  The onset of ill health motivated him to further his education and change career direction.  He has completed a Level 6 Business Administration course along with extra modules in Maths and Computerised Accounts.  His work placement in Cora Systems allowed him to further develop his existing design and communication skills.  With his degree, Octavian intends to start a career in Digital Marketing and open his own business in the future.

Patrick Lynch

Due to the onset of a degenerative back disease, Patrick had to cease being a self-employed carpenter.  As he is also a musician, Patrick decided to pursue this alternative career path.  He hopes to equip himself “with a qualification relevant to a career in music, arts and media” and to continue to develop his own creative ambitions as an artist.

Louise Finnegan
Technological University Dublin Social Care
Louise Sexton
National University of Ireland Galway Social Care
Lukasz Olszewksi
University College Dublin Social Policy & Sociology
Maeve Anderson
Ulster University Human Nutrition
Martha Doyle
Ulster University Computing Systems
Martin Trainor
Ulster University Social Work
Megan Buckley
University College Cork Social Science
Megan Peaches Jennings
Queen’s University Belfast Psychology

The Scholarships

Uversity advertises and awards Higher Education Scholarships to Adult Learners to enrol on a Bachelor’s Degree for the first time