Adamstown Community College, the local co-educational post-primary in he "model town", Adamstown, on the Dublin-Kildare border, is a very different type of school in a community full of possibilities. Six students from the school will write our daily diaries about this year's Leaving Cert exams.
Adamstown Community College is the beating heart of this fledgling community. Principal Des Newton began here in September 2009 with 69 first-year pupils. Five years later there’s 870 pupils, and growing; this is the first year the school will have a Leaving Cert class. “We have a broad range of academic ability here and an inclusive enrolment policy. There’s also an eclectic demographic, with students from over 50 countries and a small Leaving Cert Applied class.”
The six students who will share their Leaving Cert experiences from early June are bright, engaged and gregarious young people. We’ll catch up with our diarists again before the exams but here they are:
Henry Kareem (18) is originally from Nigeria and moved to Ireland at nine. He attended a Gaelscoil and is a fluent Irish speaker. He also speaks Yoruba, an ethnic Nigerian language. He want to study music production at IADT. His favourite subject is music.
Natalia Staroscinska is 18 years old and has Polish heritage. She would like to study art in IADT. Her favourite subject is art.
Evalina Siaulyte is 18 and has Lithuanian heritage. She has applied for nursing in Trinity College Dublin and needs 500 points. Her favourite subjects are biology and music.
Keith Coffey is 17 and a native of Lucan. He's a keen footballer and is interested in spirituality and how people view the world. His dream job is to teach business and religion and he has applied for theology and arts at Maynooth University.
Emily Kane is 18 and is interested in politics and current affairs. She's a head girl at Adamstownand has applied for law at Trinity College Dublin. Her favourite subject is English.
Mumtaz Rostam is originally from Malaysia and has lived in Ireland for seven years. She has applied for medicine in Trinity College and her favourite subject is biology.
