Recipients announced for DCU President’s Awards for Engagement for 2025
The team behind Dublin City University’s Partnership for Learning programme and a plan for countering disinformation by training public librarians in media literacy were just some of the projects and people recognised at this year’s DCU President’s Awards for Engagement, designed to celebrate the engagement of staff and students in the life of the wider community.
The recipients were presented with their awards earlier today at a ceremony on DCU’s Glasnevin Campus. At the ceremony, DCU President Professor Daire Keogh spoke about the importance of recognising staff and students that play a key role in contributing to the wider community around DCU and beyond:
DCU is a place where our communities and stakeholders are always welcome. We are a ‘People First University’ that works for the benefit of society. I am delighted to see that ethos so clearly reflected in the nominations and awardees here today. I congratulate you all and thank you for your work and leadership.
In the Staff Category, Dr Eileen Culloty, Assistant Professor in the School of Communications and deputy director of the DCU Institute for Media, Democracy, and Society (FuJo), won the overall award for her work in strengthening media literacy and equipping communities to counter disinformation - particularly, through her Media Literacy Community Connections project, which supports public librarians across Ireland to undertake media literacy training, and then implement what they have learned in their local communities. Dr Culloty is also co-chair of Media Literacy Ireland, regularly presents to government committees, and is the only academic involved in the working group developing Ireland's National Counter Disinformation Strategy.
In the Staff Special Merit category, the DCU Institute of Education’s Partnership for Learning team - Dr Shivaun O'Brien, Dr Carol-Ann Ó’Síoráin, Dr Tara Concannon-Gibney, Dr Sarah O'Grady, Dr Jane O'Kelly, Sue Dwyer, Caitríona Ní Mhurchú and Conor Sullivan - were recognised for their decade-long programme providing professional learning courses, free of charge, to thousands of schools, early childhood and further education and training providers that host more than six thousand DCU IOE students on placement each year.
In the student category, Malha Muhammed (BSc Bioprocessing, Faculty of Science and Health) won for her impact through her role as Senior Peer Mentor at DCU, and her vital environmental leadership through Gaisce and Swords Tidy Towns. Every Saturday morning, Malha guides Transition Year students who are working towards their Gaisce President’s Award - providing them with hands-on learning opportunities, and guiding them through community service activities such as litter picking, graffiti removal, weeding, and gardening. Beyond her hands-on environmental work, Malha is a strong advocate for urban sustainability and innovative ecological solutions. She plays a key role in the "Leaf Cage" project, an initiative designed to promote sustainable waste management and support circular economy principles. She also conducts monthly water quality testing in Swords, monitoring essential ecological parameters, including pH levels, nitrogen content, dissolved oxygen and temperature. This data provides valuable insights into the health of local waterways and is submitted to Fingal County Council to aid in ongoing environmental monitoring efforts.
In the special merit student category, Niall Ashfield, a final year PhD student in the Cancer Biotherapeutics Research Group in the Faculty of Science and Health, was recognised for his work in mentorship and science communication. Niall is a former winner of the Mentor of the Year Award in the DCU Graduate to Student Mentorship Programme, and this year, he competed in the national finals of the Irish Universities Association’s Three Minute Thesis competition. As a committee member for DCU’s Biological Research Society, Niall was instrumental in launching their first annual Eolas Award, a €1,000 bursary available to PhD students within the School of Biotechnology and the Life Sciences Institute to facilitate national and international travel for conference attendance or research secondments.
For more information and a full list of nominees, visit the website here.