We are so excited to see our name being bandied about across all media sites at the moment. While those on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are familiar with us, the news media are now picking up on the excitement. So far, we have been in the Sunday Independent, Limerick Leader, Carlow Nationalist, Irish Tech News and womenmeanbusiness.com
On radio we have been heard on KCLR, Beat FM, and on TV we have made it onto the RTE News, woohooo!.
The Sunday Independent sang the praises of the programme quoting our very own head honcho, Kim Mackenzie-Doyle -: “Creativity is not a talent, it’s a skill to learn. Education is currently only about having the right answer but creativity is all about possibilities. Employers are looking for creative thinkers but you are expected to just be creative. It’s approached like a talent, but creativity is a skill that can be taught”. The article went on to discuss kinaesthetic learning, physical learning as well as verbal learning and written learning. The B!G Idea accommodates all types of learners and being free is completely inclusive.
RTE News focused on four different students and showed the projects that they have been working on. Donal Enright, the TY co-ordinator at Desmond College, Limerick said of the students: “Some are great communicators, others are gifted with practical ability. They married their skills and produced wonderful work over the last couple of months. I can’t wait to see the final outcome”.
Womenmeanbusiness.com focused on developing creativity within the school system, again quoting Kim: “Our education system doesn’t teach creativity as a standalone module. Sadly, we stop encouraging creativity as children get older. Education needs to evolve.” The article also gave a shout out to some of our superstar mentors and progressive partners – “the programme has a whopping 101 mentors from a range of disciplines, with creatives such as Dermot Bannon, Diarmuid Gavin, Roisin Lafferty, Timi Ogunyemi and Lorna Ross also judging the projects. It has so far attracted the support of Irish innovators such as MSD, UX Design Institute, Netwatch, Blacknight, Applegreen, Portwest, Creative Ireland and many more.”
The Limerick Leader talked about “bridging the gap between industry and education with active mentoring from top creative professionals”. It talks about preparing students for all professions, even ones that haven’t yet been created!
Irish Tech News focused on how the B!G Idea will prepare young people for the Senior Cycle with “in-demand skills”. It continued by saying that the aim is to equip the next generation with the creative mindset to tackle the biggest problems society faces from the housing crisis to future pandemics.
The Carlow Nationalist quoted John Cullinane, deputy principal of Carlow’s Presentation De La Salle College in Bagenalstown who said greater levels of creativity and innovation are needed now more than ever. “The world that we live in today requires greater levels of creativity and innovation than at any time in our history. As evidenced by the design briefs for the 2021 B!G Idea programme, we live in an increasingly complex world experiencing unprecedented challenges that require creativity, innovation, collaboration and determination to manage and overcome.”
All media highlighted the need to raise funds in order to cater for the 10,000 students on our waiting list for 2022. We can’t stop and won’t stop until everyone knows about the value of creative skills and we can continue our mission to deliver this unique experience to all TY students across the country. If you would like to help 10,000 more students to avail of the B!G Idea initiative please get in touch!
