April 2017 NUI Galway Sweep the Boards at the National Society BICS Awards

NUI Galway Societies were presented with seven awards at the recent Board of Irish College Societies (BICS) National Awards. Over 400 staff and students from colleges across Ireland took part in the annual awards. This event sees student college societies, from all over the country compete against each other for 20 awards in 13 different categories. 

NUI Galway Medical Society won ‘Best Cultural, Academic & Social Society’. The Medical society have raised almost €12,000 and promoted awareness about Mental Health in the West of Ireland with their Déan Athrú event. The NUI Galway society Climate Change & Food Safety won ‘Best Charity and Civic Society’ for their work in promoting awareness about climate change and sustainability and they also ran a campaign that resulted in the divestment of €3.4 million of fossil fuel shares in NUI Galway.

The Sláinte Society won best ‘Event’ for their very popular Teddy Bear Hospital which sees 1,300 national school children and their teddies visit the campus to help alleviate children’s fears of hospitalisation and illness.

The ‘Best Intervarsity Award’, went to NUI Galway Dramsoc for hosting the Irish Student Drama Association in 2016. This event allows colleges all over Ireland to showcase their best productions and compete against each other. The festival culminated at an Awards Ball, which honoured students participating in every aspect of theatre. The ‘Best New Society Award’, went to the NUI Galway Paediatric Society. Within this society the aim is to promote healthcare and wellbeing for children. The event Healthy Heroes gave the opportunity to visit national schools to promote healthy eating.

The ‘Best Poster’ went to the Philosophy Society. The poster was designed by Siobhan Lenihan, who is studying a degree in Human Rights. The poster captured a student promoting an event about the philosophy of healthy and sustainable eating. The ‘Best Fresher Award’ went to Daniel Emmet Leahy, a student studying Law and German and who is also a committee member of several other societies at NUI Galway.

BICS is a national organisation dedicated to providing a national forum for the societies in Ireland’s universities, Colleges and Institutes of Education. BICS now represents 21 colleges, 901 societies with 180,000 students across the island of Ireland. The organisation helps students from across the country to network, meet new people and run events on and off campus. The BICS Awards celebrate the unyielding work students do to create a greater, more enjoyable and more holistic college life for their peers.

Ríona Hughes, BICS Chairperson and NUI Galway Society Officer, said: “The awards are the culmination of the societies year and we were delighted with the calibre of students attending. It is humbling to see the commitment and dedication that society committee members bring to making not only their campuses more welcoming and supportive but to the positive difference they make to their local communities and the wider world.”

For more information about BICS Awards visit http://bics.ie/.

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