National accolade for Caimin’s pupil

ST Caimin’s Community School pupil Evgeniya Soldatkina achieved the highest mark in Ireland in the Junior Certificate technical graphics exam last June.

She was presented with her prize by the Engineering Technology Teachers Association at an awards ceremony in Athenry.

She told The Clare Champion she is delighted with her achievement and while she was the top performer in the exam, she didn’t find it very easy by any means.

“Well, at the last minute I got the last question. I was the last one in the room, everyone was gone and I was thinking about it and I got a way to do it in the end.”

The subject was something she enjoyed very much. “I like the way you can visualise things in 3D and put it on paper,” she said.

Evgeniya arrived in Ireland from Russia 10 years ago and says she isn’t sure what she wants to do after finishing school. “I picked three sciences (for the Leaving Cert), chemistry, physics and biology and I’d like to do something like that too. There’s a huge choice and I haven’t decided yet.”

St Caimin’s deputy principal, Claire Knight, said coming first in the country in the subject is an outstanding achievement.

“It’s fantastic and it’s great for the subject area because the uptake by female students in that area is quite low. It’s improving all the time and it’s very suitable for both males and females. Evgeniya is an excellent student overall. Pádraig Duddy taught her technical graphics and he was very proud that she achieved it,” she said.