Talented young Derry woman Ava Canney thrilled to begin education at Yale

Earlier this year Ava, a former head girl at St. Mary’s College, received an offer of an undergraduate place at Yale University in New Haven.

She told the ‘Journal’ she is thrilled the time has now come for her to make the trip to Connecticut to commence her first Fall Term at the acclaimed Ivy League institution.

“I can’t wait,” she said. “I haven’t actually seen the university itself so I’m really looking to forward it.”

Ava explained how the seeds of inspiration for her application to Yale were first planted when she was a third year student at St. Mary’s.

“I got an award for science and I went over to Pittsburgh to represent Ireland. That’s the only time I’ve ever been to America. But with the research opportunities out there I’ve always wanted to go back. I also wanted to have that wider education rather than focusing down on one subject very early,” she said.

Ava credits her alma mater of St. Mary’s for laying the foundations for her imminent educational adventure State-side.

“With St. Mary’s I’ve been involved in the BT Young Scientist Competition and have been in Dublin, Birmingham and Belfast,” she said.

This was recognition for an innovative chemistry project in which she used a homemade spectrophotometer to measure the amount of synthetic dyes in a selection of coloured foods and drinks.

St. Mary’s also allowed Ava to pursue a broad range of interests, something she will be continuing when she travels to the ‘Constitution State’ later this month.

“My secondary school got me where I wanted to go.

“ I got an A in my transfer test but I chose to go to St. Mary’s because I saw what they had in terms of science and I’m really into music and they had a great choir. I just knew that was where I wanted to go.

“I definitely wouldn’t be going where I am today if I had chosen any other school,” she said.

Derry-born Nobel Prize winner William C. Campbell whose discovery radically reduced River Blindness and could be effective against SARS-CoV-2 has published a new memoir ‘Catching The Worm’