Paul Maskey MP: Aisling Education Bursary Speech 2023
Tonight, as we celebrate 24 years of the Aisling Education Bursaries, I am delighted to be here once again in St Mary’s University College at one of the best and most special nights in West Belfast, where we commend the generosity of our sponsors and applaud each and every Aisling Bursary recipient.
I’d like to begin by thanking our fantastic sponsors – many of you have been with us from the beginning in the year 2000 and we are delighted to have new sponsors and new faces this year.
Thanks to all of you for making this the biggest Aisling Education Bursary year yet, with the largest number of both sponsorship and recipients in 24 years.
Your generosity this year has enabled 175 students to receive an Aisling Bursary and you have donated an incredible £87,500.
It’s fantastic that in the last 24 years, a total of £907,000 has been awarded to 1249 students. Let’s try to reach the £1m mark for next year to celebrate 25 years!
The Aisling Education Bursaries are a unique education scheme for students from west Belfast and Shankill, which highlight the importance the business community attaches to education in developing West Belfast. The initiative is a community and private sector partnership through which businesses, community enterprises, families and individuals contribute to the Aisling Education Bursary fund and make a firm commitment to developing the skills of the local community.
As sponsors you have shown not only an incredible gesture of generosity, but also a vote of confidence in the recipients of the Bursaries and a real investment in this community.
It is great to see 174 students receiving an Aisling Education Bursary here tonight – congratulations to all of you.
I am very proud to be from West Belfast and when I look at the order of presentation tonight it makes me even more proud. Tonight we celebrate students who are studying at St Mary’s University College, Queen’s, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as vocational courses in the local Blackie River Centre, People 1st and Falls Women’s Centre.
Our recipients are studying courses ranging from vocational, to Degree, Masters and PhD level in subjects such as Childcare, Counselling, IT, Teaching, Accountancy and Law.
I encourage every one of you to follow your dream and we are delighted that your Aisling Education Bursary will help you on your journey.
I also want to commend the West Belfast Partnership Board on their commitment to the community of west Belfast and pioneering role in working to enhance educational achievement. They have shown great leadership with innovative initiatives such as this and work tirelessly each year to make the Aisling Education Bursary Awards Ceremony a great event.
Thanks as always to Monica Culbert and Eilish Rooney who do a brilliant job every year as the independent judging panel.
West Belfast is a unique community and one to be proud of and our children, young people and their families continue to make us proud.
The Aisling Bursaries have reflected the best values of the people of West Belfast — both sponsors and recipients alike.
To finish I want to congratulate each recipient. You are our future business and community leaders and we look forward to seeing you back in west Belfast, bringing your skills and expertise to help further regenerate our community.
To quote Nelson Mandela:
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Good luck on your education journey and once again well done.
Comhghairdeas agus ádh mór daoibh go leor.
Carly Wade: Past Recipient Speech 2023
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the West Belfast Partnership for inviting me here tonight to speak.
My name is Carly Wade and I was a recipient of an Aisling Education Bursary in 2009.
My love of construction started from a young age, much to my mummy’s annoyance. She would often find I had pulled all the cushions off the sofa to build a fort or dismantled my very recently made bed to create a house.
At school I was not academically gifted, but I did have a passion for understanding how things worked and found I enjoyed subjects like Maths and Science. At school I would often look at the very few and far between leaflets for roles in construction but with attending an all girls school it wasn’t a career that had a big uptake.
I was not predicted to do well in my GCSEs, but to my surprise I managed to pass. Panic ensued in the week following with me being asked the question “what do you want to do and who do you want to be?”
At 16 years old I couldn’t tell you what I wanted for dinner that evening let alone what my future would hold. I panic picked subjects I thought would interest me and found a year later this was not my path.
It was my dad who came to me and asked after I received my AS results if I wanted to continue to study those subjects and at that point I found my courage to say no I want to study construction.
The next day I went to Belfast met and signed up for construction. Two years later, having been the only female in the course and achieving the highest grades they had seen to date, I had unconditional offers to study at both Queens and Jordanstown Universities.
Fast forward to September 2009. I was sitting here in St Mary’s University College as a recipient receiving my bursary from Whitemountain Group – who are now the Breedon Group – and about to start my exciting journey studying Civil Engineering.
To the recipients here tonight, I just want to say how immensely proud you should all be of your journey and paths to this point! As you can see my path was not a straight one – there were twists and turns and we all face our own unique challenges to get to the point where you sit tonight.
My Whitemountain Aisling Bursary helped me to buy a laptop and printer which I will honestly say was paramount to me being able to achieve my Degree.
I went into Civil Engineering so I could play a role in development of, not only our local area, but how our world will look in the future. I wanted to build a legacy not only for myself, but one that my family and son could look at and be proud of. In donating to the Aisling Education Bursaries, Whitemountain and all the other sponsors here today not only invest in the legacy of the recipient but they also invest in the legacy of West Belfast and its people.
Today I am speaking to you all as a Senior Highways Engineer, working for a global consultancy firm and currently working on projects both North and South that will fundamentally transform not only the way in which people move or how fast you get from A to B, but it will help protect our environment for future generations and bolster our economy.
I am also a STEM ambassador, advocating for gender equality in the construction industry in addition to supporting more women seeking careers in the construction and engineering industry.
On a final note I would like to say to the recipients, this is the start of a new and exciting journey, there will be both trials and tribulations but stay fast as this is your future your legacy.
And to the sponsors, thank you for your support and for being a part of our development and investment in not only our futures but future generations.
