It has been a big week for the Class of 2025, with CAO offers following hot on the heels of the Leaving Cert results.
For one Ukrainian student who arrived in Ireland as an unaccompanied minor, the past week has been particularly memorable.
On Wednesday, 18-year-old Max Reva accepted his top college choice after achieving a remarkable 625 points in his Leaving Cert.
He will now study Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Trinity College Dublin after getting the maximum possible points tally in his exams.
"I was anxious about the Leaving Cert at the time, and I wasn't expecting to get 625 at all. I didn't know it was going to go so well. But it did and that's a miracle for me," he said.
Max fled his hometown of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyy in southwestern Ukraine shortly after Russia's invasion in 2022.
"My parents couldn't leave Ukraine themselves as we have several elderly relatives that needed to be cared for.
"They run a grocery shop and the local community depends on it.
"My brother in Kyiv advised me to look at options, and at the time Ireland was offering refuge. I also knew English, so I set out on a journey to get here."
Max travelled with his mother first to Romania, and then on to France, before the pair parted ways at the airport in Paris.
"I was on the plane to Dublin on my own. I remember thinking my previous life was over and I shed a tear, as I didn't know if I would see my parents again."
However, Max was determined not to feel sorry for himself.
"In Dublin Airport I decided I had to cop on straight away," he explained. "We have a saying - gather yourself in a fist, meaning be stronger."
Max was placed with a foster family, who he describes as "amazing people, my Irish grandparents", and attended St Colmcille's Senior School in Knocklyon.
But in August of that year, he received a "life-changing" letter.
"It was from the headmaster of Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare. An invitation to study there on a bursary. I couldn't believe it. I was over the moon.
"I spent three years there. It gave me friends, values, connections, education, everything.
"It was definitely an important contribution to my Leaving Cert results this year, that I scored 625 points."
Clongowes Wood College has congratulated Max on his achievement.
In a statement, headmaster Chris Lumb said: "The Clongowes community of staff, students and Jesuits were very happy to support Max when he came to us in TY. He made the most of all the opportunities given to him here at the school and we wish him all the best for the future."
For Max, Trinity College Dublin - where he hopes to specialise in neuroscience - is the next stop in his remarkable education journey.
"Trinity will be a great place to study. But I'm planning to go back to Ukraine in the end, because I think it will be very important to take what I have learned here and put it back into practice at home.
"If I can do that, it will be because of my amazing foster family, brilliant teachers, great friends and, of course, my family back in Ukraine who have always been there for me," he said.
Watch our video to hear more from Max
