Press-releases
20.05.2009
Second Zavtra.UA Youth Forum in Kyiv brought together over 300 Ukraine’s top students
The 2nd Youth Forum of the nationwide scholarship programme ‘Zavtra.ua’ of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation was held from 16 to 19 May. The event gathered 318 top students from all over Ukraine, the winners of this year’s Zavtra.UA competition.
One of the key tasks of the Forum was to motivate students be more socially active and engage gifted Ukrainian youth in pubic initiatives promoting development of our country and society. The students developed social projects covering such areas as culture, education and science, sports and healthy lifestyle, environment, social and psychological support for children and teenagers.
As a result, the students came up with over 20 social projects 7 of which were improved and finalized in collaboration with famous and successful Ukrainians. Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, Pavlo Gudimov, Kyrylo Dmitriev, Vitaly Klitschko, Andrii Kurkov, Lilia Podkopaeva, Oleg Skrypka and Sergii Tygipko teamed up with the Zavtra.UA scholars working on the projects side by side. During the project presentation ceremony, the Forum guests committed to support the implementation of the initiatives developed in a joined effort.
“This Forum should become a starting point for you, a point of reference for your professional and public life, your new approach and recognition of how important your role is in building Ukraine’s future. You are not creating your own “Today”, you are creating our shared “Tomorrow”, pointed out Victor Pinchuk when meeting with the students at the PinchukArtCentre on the last day of the Forum.
Sergii Tygipko: “In my opinion, such unordinary projects are a huge advantage as they help young people establish themselves, come up with initiatives, share information, find out a lot of new stuff and support each other. This project is incredibly important, and here we see a gathering of the fascinating young people. I have only spent a couple of hours with them; nonetheless it’s so easy to fall in love with such a caring, strong and clever audience”.
Sviatoslav Vakarchuk: “I think, the training really did work. I hope the project we have developed will have a follow-up. I am happy not to be the one who is listened to, but someone who worked together with the students. There were fifty of them and I was the fifty first. Being in one team with the young gifted people inspired me greatly.”
The Environment issue was addressed in the “Oasis” project of Sergii Tygipko’s group. The project concept included creation of oases in industrial zones and residential areas of the Ukrainian cities, development of river banks and treading paths in the country’s natural reserves.
Education was covered by two different projects. Sviatoslav Vakarchuk’s group prepared a project entitled “Para” (a two-hours class in Ukrainian universities) – a concept for an information portal for uploading video-lectures by the top lecturers of Ukrainian universities available for use by anyone. A project “I want - I can” presented by the group of Kirill Dmitriev encompassed development of a data portal for pupils and students that would offer useful information on education in Ukraine and abroad, education programmes and grants.
Culture initiatives included the “Anti-Stereotype” Internet project developed by students together with Oleg Skrypka. The main idea behind it was to show the diversity of culture of Ukraine, something the country should be proud of. Another group of students together with Pavlo Gudimov presented the “Karton.ua” project, a web-site designed in a form of a culture map of Ukraine that would contain information on cultural events throughout Ukraine and help organize art happenings in different regions of the country.
Promoting sports and healthy lifestyle, the group of students led by Lilia Podkopaeva submitted a “Freebie Sports” project aimed at improving family and schoolchildren health, i.e. setting up a data web-resource, working with children and their parents in resort areas and hosting work-shops and shows by successful sportsmen.
Andrii Kurkov and his group of scholars presented three projects of social aid for orphans and handicapped children: “Child – Future”, “Voice of Heart” and “Summer School” to be implemented in Kharkiv, Lviv and Rivne respectively.
This year’s competition under Zavtra.UA Scholarship Programme, implemented by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, was held for the third time. Nearly 1500 students from over 100 universities of Ukraine took part in it. Following a three-stage selection process, 318 students won the competition. It means that the competition was 5 students per winning place. This year the Programme reached all regions of Ukraine and covered all academic disciplines taught in the universities of Ukraine. All Zavtra.UA winners will receive UAH942 monthly scholarship during a year.
Background:
Zavtra.UA Scholarship Programme is the first nation-wide programme of support for gifted young students in Ukraine, sponsored by private funds. It is one of the components of Victor Pinchuk Foundation's projects in the field of education and science.
The main strategic goal of the programme is to facilitate formation and strengthening of a new generation of intellectual and business elites in Ukraine from among best graduate students of the national institutions of higher education. The programme is intended to help gifted young students find the best positions in different areas of business and public life that correspond to their intellectual and professional capabilities, and to help them become the driving force of progressive changes in Ukraine.
The main aspects of Zavtra.UA scholarship programme:
- provision of monthly scholarships during a year;
- implementation of Individual Initiative Support Programme under Zavtra.UA, i.e. financial support for art, science and research, social and economic, and business projects that are developed by the winner students (primarily social projects) promoting Ukraine’s future and developing scholar’s potential;
- engaging students in collective social initiatives;
- engaging students in activities that strengthen their social and personal responsibility for the country.
The programme's strategic goals are achieved through the selection of the most talented students of the Ukrainian universities, those with high intellect, aspiration for knowledge and individual scientific work, in addition to outstanding personal qualities and general concern about Ukrainian society. The selection of such students is carried out following a three-stage competition. Selection criteria are: intellectual level, independent scientific work, leadership and communication skills.
The programme also provides scholars with additional opportunities for personal development, support of individual projects and collective initiatives, as well as organizing of informal communication, skills and information exchanges.
The programme is implemented in a close cooperation with Ukrainian universities. The list of universities participating in the programme is formed by the Foundation, based on the Board of Trustees recommendations in accordance with their recognition in the society and academic environments, according to their level of educational process and scientific research, as well as according to the need of representation of different regions and university majors. The list of the universities could be reviewed annually with respect to the effectiveness of participating institutions.
In 2006 Zavtra.UA established official relations with 11 graduation schools of Ukraine. Following the first competition, 201 scholars were selected. In 2007 the number of partner universities increased to 32 and 316 new students were selected in the course of the competition. This year the programme so far has reached its highest point having engaged 54 universities as partners. 318 students won Zavtra.UA scholarships in 2009.
