Triple success in China for Roscrea student’s team
Roscrea student Simon Madden visited China to take part in an international event
A Roscrea student is among four business students from Dublin City University (DCU) who had great success last week when they travelled to China to present a project focused on promoting the Irish language as part of a prestigious international competition.
The team included Roscrea’s Simon Madden with Lucas Spicer, Simon Standa and Wojciech Karatysz, who worked collaboratively to develop and present the proposal on the international stage.
Simon is well known in his hometown of Roscrea and recently qualified from DCU with a First Class Honours Degree having completed a Marketing Innovation and New Technology degree course.
Simon completed his secondary education at Cistercian College Roscrea and only recently started his Master's course in Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana in the United States.
Representing both DCU and Ireland, the team developed an innovative public policy proposal focused on increasing the everyday use of the Irish language.
The international competition brought together more than 4,000 participants from over 400 institutions across 100 countries and six continents.
Just 15 teams were selected to present their proposals at the global final in Beijing.
In addition to placing second overall, the DCU team received the Best Research Award in recognition of the quality and depth of the research underpinning its proposal. A member of the team, Lucas Spicer was also presented with the competition’s Best Individual Award.
The policy explored how Irish could move from being primarily a language people learn to one that is more widely used in daily life.
It proposed a practical and evidence-based approach to strengthening the role of Irish in communities and encouraging greater engagement with the language beyond formal education.
Their success highlights the value of interdisciplinary research, innovative policy development and collaboration in responding to important social and cultural challenges. It also demonstrates the potential for locally relevant ideas to contribute to international conversations.
Before leaving Ireland the team received a letter from President Catherine Connolly wishing them luck in China.