Enterprising students prove they are the business
Killorglin Community College students Edel O'shea, Merissa Foley and Courtney Griffin who will participate in the final auditions for The TV programme The Business with teachers Sadhbh Fitzgerald and Gavin Quinlivan at the Killarney Community College. Credit: Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin
TWO enterprising Killorglin Community College students are to appear on RTÉ series 'The Business', after they secured one of 12 available spots for the programme's shortlist.
The students, Merissa Foley and Courtney Griffin, impressed a panel of six judges at IT Tralee, with their pitches for their business ideas, and now are in with a real chance of being featured on the RTE programme presented by George Lee.
The judging panel, which included local entrepreneur and founder of tweak.ie Jerry Kenneally, commended Merissa and Courtney for their "confident and bubbly" presentations of their Young Entrepreneur Programme (YEP) ideas in a pressure situation. Other members of the judging panel included representatives from RTE, I.T. Tralee, and business mentors.
Merissa's business idea is 'Kirola Praka', which provides undershorts for female GAA players as girls are not allowed to wear undershorts when playing GAA. Courtney's idea, 'Rua', is a one-stopshop website which offers the best hair and skin products as well as colour advice for redheads.
Another Killorglin student, Edel O'shea, was also commended for her enthusiasm and excellent research into her business idea, 'Forever Perfect', a polymer to protect costume jewellery from making a green tinge on skin. The girls' teachers Gavin Quinlivan and Sadhbh Fitzgerald were delighted with the effort the students had put in.
"The experience will definitely stand to them into the future," Gavin Quinlivan remarked.
60 students in total were selected from this year's 600 Young Entrepreneur Programme participants to try out for the auditions for The Business. The YEP Programme continues until the end of March and students from Killorglin Community College are looking forward to the next phase of the programme, Business Boot Camp, in the Brandon Hotel, Tralee, on Friday, February 3 next.
- BRENDAN MCCARTHY
