THREE teenagers from Northern Ireland are due to leave for the US later this month after being accepted into Yale University.
Patti Mullin, from Belfast, Elé Donegan, from Bangor, and Ava Canney, from Derry, won places at the prestigious Ivy League campus after being recognised for their exceptional talents.
Ms Mullin, who studied at Aquinas Grammar, will take advantage of the liberal arts approach to learning and study a broad range of subjects at Yale, which is located in New Haven, Connecticut.
With a particular interest in neuroscience, cognitive science and psychology, the 18-year-old will take classes in these areas to begin her undergraduate studies.
A talented and award-winning musician, the teenager is an Irish International champion rower and will join Yale women’s rowing crew, where she’ll be training and competing with world and Olympian-level rowers.
Bangor woman Elé Donegan, a double Irish swimming champion, has already been recruited by Yale women’s swimming team.
Interested in working in the Space sector, the 19-year-old, who is a former pupil of Our Lady's and St Patrick's College, Knock, in south Belfast hopes to major in mathematics, and physics.
Involved in equity campaigning and STEM educational resource development, Elé's campaigning work saw her visit Stormont to lobby for the now adopted `Free Provision Bill' which commits the Executive to providing free period products in the bathrooms of all public buildings.
Derry girl Ava Canney, an award winning scientist, who built a spectrophotometer to test synthetic dyes in sweets and drinks, plans to take classes in STEM subjects with a favoured direction towards chemical engineering and pharmaceuticals.
A budding star, who has completed graded examinations in speech, drama and singing, the 19-year-old, who formerly attended St Mary's College, Derry, plans to continue her passion at Yale taking a wide range of art classes.
A spokeswoman for the trio said the "broad interest aspect" offered at Yale appealed to the three young woman who are "multi-potentiality students".
"All of them want to pursue a range of interests and Yale offers the possibility of doing that," she said.
"Just these three exceptional young women have been admitted to Yale this year from the island of Ireland, what an achievement and what an adventure lies ahead for them".
