The Young Social Innovators of 2016 from Portmarnock Community School, Dublin have taken a new title in Manila, with their project Global Citizens Mapping the Future. The team made it to the final round and came 2nd in the Social Enterprise Business category of the SAGE World Cup 2016 (Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship). Delegations from 20 countries travelled to the Philippines to compete at the event which took place in Manila from 10th August. The Irish students’ placement was announced during the Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening.

The YSI team is the current title holder of Young Social Innovators of the Year 2016 with their project “Global Citizens Mapping the Future”. As the national Co-ordinating Host for SAGE, Young Social Innovators chose this team to represent Ireland at the World Cup for teenage entrepreneurs.

The team has worked hard to develop a humanitarian mapping community that can help countries to determine land boundaries. The team digitally created an online map of Lesotho in Africa and has goals to expand their project further to other countries.

Speaking after the award announcement Colin McAndrew, a member of the winning team said, “We are so proud to be representing Ireland at the SAGE World Cup and are delighted to be bringing home the trophy. We believe we are making a real difference and are looking forward to developing our project throughout other schools in Ireland and beyond. We’d like to thank our Principal and everyone in Portmarnock who supported us and especially our fantastic teachers and YSI Guides Niall Fitzgerald and Colette Cronin who have supported us every step of the way.”

Rachel Collier, CEO, Young Social Innovators, said, “Given the right opportunities and platforms young people can realise their potential and become powerful catalysts for social change.  Watching these YSI students excel on a global stage makes us extremely proud. I congratulate them and their YSI Guides on their wonderful achievement and I look forward to seeing their social enterprise develop in the coming years.

This is the second time in just 3 years a YSI team has featured in the top awards at this challenging World Cup, showing the impact that YSI’s social innovation education programme is having in Ireland. We remember the YSI Greener Globe team from Tullamore who took 1st place in Moscow in 2014."