St. Aloysius College, Athlone

St. Aloysius College
Motto Per ardua ad astra
Established 1960
Gender of pupils Male
Location Deer Park Road,
Athlone, Ireland
Coordinates 53°25′10″N 7°56′47″W / 53.419390°N 7.946271°WCoordinates: 53°25′10″N 7°56′47″W / 53.419390°N 7.946271°W
Website www.staloysiuscollege.ie

St. Aloysius College is a secondary school in Athlone, Westmeath, Ireland. It is primarily a school for boys, though its Leaving Certificate Repeat Programme is open to both genders.

History

Pupil Loughlan O'Regan receives Junior Ericsson Technology Award at SciFest 2014.

The school was founded in 1960 by Monsignor John McCarthy and Dr. Vincent Hanly, Bishop of Elphin. The institution is named after Aloysius Gonzaga, the Renaissance Italian aristocrat born in 1568, who joined the Jesuits, and was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726.

The first classes took place in a small room attached to the Dean Crowe Theatre. The school later moved to a much larger, dedicated location at Deer Park Road, its present day location. The Georgian house there, built in 1820, was the sole venue for classes in the early years after the move, but as the number of pupils grew, newer classrooms, study areas and recreation facilities were built.

The late Dr. Joseph Ducke, author, and founder of the Passionfruit Theatre, taught English at the school.

In 2010, the college partnered with Élan Corporation in a business-to-education learning initiative.[1]

Awards and academic achievements

In 2014, the school placed in the top 3 in the technology category at the Young Scientist Exhibition,[2] with students Lochlann O’Reagan, Paul Rushe and Eryk Zaplata's[3] answer to the question 'Can non-proprietary/open-source software be used to emulate large scale proprietary text to speech systems?'.[4]

Also in 2014, the school won the SEAI Sustainable Energy Award at the SciFest event at Athlone Institute of Technology, with pupil Aaron Broughall's project 'Let your devices soak up the rain', under the mentor-ship of teacher Bill Kearney,[5] while student Loughlan O'Regan was recognised with a Junior Ericsson Technology Award for his project 'Teaching the basics of sailing using information technology tools'.

References

  1. ↑ "St Aloysius and Elan join in a novel partnership". The Anglo-Celt. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition Results". Irish Independent. 11 January 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Category Awards 2014". btyoungscientist.ie. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Tríona Doherty (10 January 2014). "Aloysius projects vie in Young Scientist expo". Athlone Advertiser. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Major Award Winners 2014". SciFest.ie. Retrieved 4 August 2014.

External links