European Money Quiz. Maria Miller & Lily O’Connor from Presentation College Carlow
By Elizabeth Lee
TWO students from Presentation College, Carlow won first prize in a prestigious banking competition and will head over to Brussels on Friday 19 April to represent Ireland.
Third-year students Maria Miller and Lily O’Connor, both aged 15, beat off stiff competition from over 2,000 students across the country in the Irish heat of the European Money Quiz, which is organised by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), with support from the Business Studies Teachers’ Association of Ireland (BSTAI).
It’s the first time that two young females have won the national prize and Presentation College principal Ray Murray is very proud of them.
“Understanding and learning about money and finance is really important for young people. It is something we strongly encourage within the school and our students really enjoy taking part in the live, online Irish finals of the quiz, which brings financial education to life, as well as bringing a bit of fun and excitement to the classroom,” said Mr Murray. “We are tremendously proud of Maria and Lily’s success and the entire school community is fully behind them as they head to the finals in Brussels.”
The European Money Quiz is Europe’s largest financial education competition, which aims to promote financial literacy among students aged between 13 and15 years. The live European finals, hosted by the European Banking Federation in Brussels, will see teams of two from 30 countries play directly against each other in a bid to become European champions and share in a prize fund of €5,000 for their school.
This year, Queen Mathilde of Belgium will attend the finals and participate in the awards ceremony. Since the inauguration of the quiz in 2018, Ireland has performed exceptionally well, securing a podium spot in the top three European teams on three occasions.
Further details are available at www.bpfi.ie/moneyquiz.
