2009 Horizon Award for Outstanding Achievement Under the Age of 35
Priscilla Corcoran MooneyB.Sc.’99, BA’00, BSW’03
The Alumni Horizon Award honours young alumni who have realized extraordinary achievements before the age of 35.
If you want to achieve a lifetime’s worth of volunteer and community service by the age of 35, you’d better get an early start. Priscilla Corcoran Mooney started early in high school and never stopped. She promoted environmental initiatives as a member of the Green Team at Fatima Academy. She started the very first literary club at her school and she contributed to the school newspaper.
Then she moved to Memorial and a whole new world of opportunity opened up. First of all, unlike most of us, Ms. Corcoran Mooney pursued not one degree, but three. She received her Bachelor of Science in 1999, her Bachelor of Arts in 2000 and her Bachelor of Social Work in 2003.
That was all well and good, but Ms. Corcoran Mooney still had some free time on her hands, so she leapt right into a range of volunteer opportunities. At CHMR, they needed a host for the campus’s very first Irish-Newfoundland show, so she put her name forward. She wrote occasionally for both the university newspaper and the provincial daily newspaper. In 2003 her three-part series on the tenth anniversary of the cod moratorium won her a national award for the best series from the Canadian Better Newspapers Association. She represented the province’s youth on the Royal Commission for Strengthening Our Place in Canada. And above all, she relentlessly pursued her vision of what life in rural Newfoundland should be like.
She credits her parents for instilling in her the love of rural life and the sense of belonging to her community. This is something she never forgot. She became Branch’s youngest mayor in 2003 and initiated a range of programs to help revitalize the community of Branch. Those initiatives include the Singing Kitchen, acting as vice-chair of the Friends of Cape St. Mary’s, the past treasurer of the recreation committee, and the working with Well Teen Club. Her famous sign at the community centre listing the top 21 reasons to live in this small community of 300 made regional and national news. In 2007, her volunteer work was recognized nationally with Flare Magazine’s Community Volunteer Award.
Ms. Corcoran Mooney also works as a social worker and, with her husband Chris, runs a successful bed and breakfast business in Branch.
Ms. Corcoran Mooney is this year’s winner of Horizon Award recognizing the extraordinary achievements of a Memorial alumna under the age of 35.