A grant scheme run by Galway Lions Club offers financial support to people who are struggling with the cost of third-level education. It came about thanks to the generosity of a woman who’d never had the chance to go to college herself. STEPHEN CORRIGAN hears how her bequest is making a difference to the lives of two mature ATU students.

“I felt like I’d won the Lotto,” is how ATU Film and TV Production student Rory McFadden describes securing a Galway Lions Club bursary to pursue his studies.

Rory, and Ewa Kowalska, are recipients of the Lions Club grant at ATU Galway – and both, who are mature students, are relishing the opportunity of third level education.

But like many hoping to return to education, the cost of funding their studies presented a challenge.

Money is often the biggest hurdle any student has to clear, and finance is a particular difficulty for many mature students – that is any student going into college or university over the age of 23.

“Life happens,” as Ewa says, and paying the bills, as adults must, can get in the way of educational aspirations.

In most cases, it’s not the course fee that presents the largest obstacle, but all the ancillary costs that come with it – everything from rent and laptops to books and equipment.

It’s with those costs that the Lions Club has been helping for the last number of years through its annual grants – providing €1,250 to four students from ATU Galway and University of Galway to help them on their way to fulfilling their dreams.

President of Galway Lions Club, Muireann Ryan, says the grant scheme is a source of great pride for their volunteers and is very much in keeping with their ethos of giving people a ‘leg-up’ when this is needed.

“We love the cases where we can help people who want to make a change in their life, when it’s something we can give them support in.

“The Lions Club has been linking in with Student Access, previously with GMIT and now ATU, for a number of years to support its students on their education journey. We also support students from the University of Galway,” she says.

“There was a lady who supported the club for a number of years in her later life. She didn’t have a family and she bestowed her estate to the Lions Club.

“That lady was Phil Geoghegan, and she hadn’t had the opportunity to get an education – she was illiterate. The committee came together to look at how the fund might be best used and because she didn’t have that chance of an education, the decision was made to put it into educational support for people who need it,” says Muireann.

Ewa, who is in her second year of Applied Biology and Biopharmaceutical Science at ATU, received the bursary in her first year, and says it was life-changing.

The Roscam-based mother-of-two says her children, now aged 13 and 16, were her priority and it was only when they were old enough that she felt she could go back to education, as she had always wanted to do.

Pictured: At the Access and Participation office at ATU, from left, Margaret Laffey, Administration; Anita Mahony, Funds Administrator; Ewa Kowalska, student; Muireann Ryan, President of Galway Lions Club; Rory McFadden, student; and Marcella Reilly, Access and Participation Officer. PHOTO: JOE O’SHAUGHNESSY.