Presentation College recently celebrated the outstanding efforts of its Second Year CSPE students, whose successful anti-racism and diversity campaigns achieved national recognition in conjunction with the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s Creative Competition.

Second Year CSPE students in Presentation College facilitated and encouraged by teachers Ms Byrne and Ms Gibbons spent time creating posters and social media campaigns spreading the twin messages of the beauty of diversity and of anti-racism. These actions align with the Show Racism the Red Card Creative Competition, which focuses on using art and creative messages to promote anti-racism and celebrate diversity on social media.

The school expressed immense pride in the enthusiastic work put in by the students to ensure that everyone is aware of how welcome they are to the school community, describing the institution as one where students of all races and cultures are supported and made to feel welcome.

The campaign achieved competitive success when student Maria Antonio won the Junior on-line category with a beautiful and positive video she created on valuing your own culture and the cultures of others. The Creative Competition, run by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, invited entries in various formats, including film and posters, which must be embedded in a real or imagined social media campaign.

A presentation was recently held in the school library to acknowledge and to celebrate the wonderful work done by the students and to award Maria with her prize. The ceremony was attended by School Principal Ray Murray, Second Year Head Declan O’Connor, Teachers Una Byrne and Edwina Gibbons, and Marton Bisztrai Show Racism the Red Card Coordinator from the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

CSPE Coordinator Ms Byrne was very impressed with the student creativity and enthusiasm for the awareness raising campaign. Following the presentation to Maria, a number of students received school awards for the lovely posters that they had made. 1AT winners were: Sophia Holmes, Abigail Lawlor, Adam Keegan, John Moscalu, Freya Nolan and Szymon Szymanski. 1AQ winners were: Tara Bruton, Emily Huang, Jessica Iovitoni, Catelynn Reilly, Sara Rothwell and Eimilija Rudokas. 2AS winners were: Rían Byrne, Evelyn Chiorean, Ivan Gramatikov, Grace Hayden, Estella Kirveleviciute and Weronika Rzepa. 

The competition supports the wider mission of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, which includes campaigns promoting Anti-racism, intercultural training, and the use of creative art to stand up to racism and create a space for love, inclusion, and solidarity on social media platforms.