John Andy Bonner (Head of Development at LYIT,) Deirdre Logue, Charlie Cannon (Principal), Danny McFadden, Niall Foody, John Muldowney(NFTE), Mary Stewart, Paul Hannigan ( President of LYIT)
Niall Foody, from Letterkenny will be waving the flag for his county and country in New York City in April.
A talented 16 yr old Transition Year student from Errigal College, Niall has created a novel product “Key You In”.
The product is a safety illuminator for around door locks which glows in the dark to enable homeowners to locate the keyhole. This is the only available product like this on the market.
Niall’s product is a simple idea. Everyone knows what it’s like to get home at night. It’s raining and dark… and you’re carrying shopping bags. You want to get into your house a.s.a.p.!!!
Problem… it’s dark and you have real problems finding the keyhole. We all have this annoying experience regularly. This happened Niall so he decided to solve this problem.
If he could clearly see the keyhole then he could put the key in the door easily and go into his house. Niall’s idea is to ‘light up’ the keyhole with a luminous sticker. Problem solved.
Niall explained his idea to Mr McFadden’s business enterprise class in Errigal College and they helped him to develop and turn it into a business plan. Errigal College’s business department has become extremely successful in the last few years in developing their student’s business ideas and gaining recognition. This kind of guidance is proving hugely beneficial to the business students of Errigal College
Niall presented his business plan, ‘Key You In’ to NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) Ireland at Dublin City University on Thursday, 31 January 2013.
NFTE was first established in the US by businessman Steve Mariotti who demonstrated that showing young people how to make money through setting up and running their own business could enable them to make a better future for themselves.
NFTE is an international non-profit organization and with twenty years experience teaching entrepreneurial skills to you people across the globe.
In conjunction with Foroige and NFTE, Niall entered his product “Key You In” into the national competition. As a result, Niall was placed first in the competition and will be representing his school at a gala ball in New York City this spring.
Four judges were tasked with the job of selecting the overall Youth Entrepreneur winner from ten regional finalists. Judges on the day included the Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland, a leading auditor with Grant Thornton and other entrepreneurs form successful business organisations.
The judges were blown away by Niall’s idea and product and unanimously agreed that Niall Foody was the overall youth entrepreneur winner for 2013.
Niall is now preparing to go to New York City to attend an event which will be filled with successful businessmen from Wall Street and many other financial districts around the world. Last year’s event catered for over 1,000 people in the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel overlooking Central Park in Manhattan with Samuel L. Jackson as guest speaker.
As well as going to New York, Niall is also travelling to China this summer with Transition Year students and teachers from Errigal College.
Mr. McFadden, the business teacher, had introduced Chinese into the Transition Year programme in order to keep the students in touch with the current worldwide economic trends. This trip is organised along with UCD and LYIT. The students of Errigal College will be introduced to the Chinese Culture and the business opportunities that are all originating in China.
Niall’s product also scooped the runner up prize in the Junior Dragon’s Den competition. Errigal College has been at the national finals of the AIB Build a Bank competition for the last six year and have come second place out of all the teams in Ireland. Errigal College’s mini-companies have won the ‘Get Up and Go’ mini-company competition.
Errigal College’s Acting Principal, Mr Charlie Cannon told us “We are very proud of Niall’s wonderful achievement.” Business teacher Mr Danny McFadden is extremely proud of Niall’s success: “Niall is the latest and most successful entrepreneur to be graduating from our business department.”