Student receives a prestigious award

Posted 31 March 2006

A 23-YEAR-OLD Armagh student at Harper Adams University College is celebrating after being awarded the Harper Ireland President’s Award.

Stuart Eakin, from Tynan, has been granted the award after making an outstanding contribution to the Harper Ireland organisation.

The organisation serves the students from the island of Ireland who are studying at the United Kingdom’s prestigious land-based university college.

Stuart, who was Vice-President of Harper Ireland between February 2005 and February 2006, was presented with the award at the annual Harper Ireland Dinner by Professor Wynne Jones, Principal of Harper Adams and President of Harper Ireland.

Stuart, a fourth-year BSc Business Management and Marketing student, also presented the Harper Ireland’s Vice-Presidents award for the first time.

The award went to first year committee member Gavin Daly, from Galway, who has been particularly active on the committee.

Both awards were made at the annual dinner of Harper Ireland, which was attended by almost 90 students and invited guests.

At the glittering event, Harper Ireland welcomed guest speaker, Mr Campbell Tweed, President of Ulster Farmers Union. Mr Tweed received a warm welcome from the audience as he spoke about the future opportunities in agriculture.

“There is a future for young people in the rural industry and it is great to see so many able representatives of that industry here tonight,” he said.

The event was spearheaded by Stuart and organised by Harper Ireland Committee, the society for students from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland studying at the Shropshire-based university college.

On receiving the award, Stuart said: “It was great honour for the work I have done to be recognised in this way. I was delighted to be presented this award as I really enjoyed organising the event and taking on the Vice Presidents role.

“I was also pleased to hand out the new award to Gavin as he has put a lot of hard work and effort into Harper Ireland.”