On Thursday 24 January Bower girl Sinead Kilgarriff, her parents and school principal John Cleary were guests of UCD President Dr Hugh Brady at the presentation of the prestigious Ad Astra 2012 Academic scholarships, followed by a formal dinner. These scholarships are awarded to those who achieve maximum points in a single sitting of the Leaving Certificate. Sinead, who scored 625 points, is currently studying medicine at the university. The Ad Astra Academy programme seeks to foster academic potential in students by offering a range of supports and benefits, including campus accommodation in a special unit. In his speech the academy director thanked each school individually for sending their outstanding students to UCD. Sinead excelled during her years at the Bower, but also took time to further her other interests, for example she gave workshops on creative writing during the last Athlone Literary Festival, and intends to climb Kilimanjaro for charity.