Four young, energetic and enterprising entrepreneurs from Gaoth Dobhair will be representing Donegal at this years Junior Achievement Ireland National finals in Dublin this week.
The group first came up with the idea for Number Ninjas shortly after the Junior Certificate while talking about how stressful and confusing the maths exam was and how they wished there was a simple maths book to explain the important and basic parts of maths.
Even though they got As and Bs in honours maths they felt textbooks were confusing, heavy, expensive and above all, boring. Normal maths books are necessary for a good grade, but, the authors sometimes forget we are teenagers who might not understand everything.
“When the time came to set up a business project in transition year, we seen a niche in the market for a maths books, so we went for it. We highly advise you to buy it if you struggle to understand the basics of maths better.
“And if it’s not for you, think of your younger brother or sister who are dreading going into secondary school or even your parents who are years out of practice. Our book is light and easily fits in any bag, while being very affordable to anyone.
“Our book has many unique selling points such as maths related jokes at the start of each chapter and because we know what exactly students need for their exams, this shaped our motto “for students by students” As transition year students we spent a lot of time in our computer room designing and writing the book, we split the work of making the book up into four equal parts which we showed to our maths teacher.
“We asked our english teacher to look over the grammar. Patricia Friel, who was our Business volunteer helped us greatly throughout Number Ninjas’ lifespan. She gave us great advice for our company and told us how the Junior Achievement Competition would be ran.
“The first round of Junior Achievement was in our school, where we were up against competitors from our own school, Gairmscoil mhic diarmuid and ArranmoreSecondary School. We believed in our company, but, with the high standard the other businesses set, we felt getting through was out of reach. We were ecstatic when our name was read out to go through and it significantly boosted our confidence.
“The next round was the regional finals in Sligo IT, where we were met with fierce competition from schools from counties like, Sligo, mayo,Galway and of course Donegal. We had an interview and we had to do a four minute presentation in front of judges, we overcame nerves and did our best to stay calm. This time we were more confident that we were going to get through and we were satisfied with how our interview and presentation went.
“Only two could get through and as they began to announce the businesses that didn’t win, we were expecting our name to come up every time, but it didn’t. We were captivated when our business was chosen to go through. Now our next stage is Dublin, for the National Finals where only eight companies get the chance to compete for Junior Achievement Business Of The Year Competition, which we are lucky enough to take part in but our aim is not to win competitions, or to make money, our only true goal is to make the world a more math- friendly place.”
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