PUPILS from St Louise's, St Dominic's and La Salle have been recognised by George Best Belfast City Airport at a graduation ceremony to celebrate students who have completed the airport’s annual IGNITE programme.
IGNITE, a joint youth leadership initiative between the airport and Cinemagic, launched in 2019 by Senior Vice President of HBO and Game of Thrones creator Jay Roewe, aims to provide 100 young people with life changing opportunities over a five-year period.
Carly Lowe, Ciara Boyle, and Sarah Beattie from St Dominic’s, and Niamh Dougan from St Louise’s Comprehensive College joined 13 other students from secondary schools and higher education colleges across Greater Belfast graduating from the 2021/22 programme.
These ambitious individuals not only developed valuable employability and life skills that will open doors in the future, but also gained an NLP Diploma in Personal and Career Development.
That takes the total number of young IGNITE participants in the North of Ireland to 58 so far – an achievement Belfast City Airport’s Director of Corporate Services, Michelle Hatfield, is incredibly proud of.
“When we partnered with Cinemagic to launch IGNITE, we had a vision of positively changing the lives of young people in our local community," she said.
“Now, three years on, it gives me great pleasure to continually watch that ambition come to fruition and witness first-hand the impact our flagship programme is having on the next generation.
“Three cohorts of incredible young people have now completed our IGNITE programme, tailored each year to focus on important topics such as mental resilience, boosting confidence, building self-esteem, and developing employability skills.
“It is an honour to be part of something that is helping Northern Ireland’s youth to fulfil their aspirations and that will deliver life-long learnings far beyond the 12-month programme itself.”
