The Victor Pinchuk Foundation Announced Names of 18 Winners of 2013 WorldWideStudies Program

On Tuesday, June 25, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation announced the names of 18 winners of the fourth competition under the WorldWideStudies program who will receive grants to pursue Masters Degrees in the world’s top Universities, as ranked by QS or The Times Higher Education.

At the occasion of the fourth WorldWideStudies competition ending, the Foundation held a ceremony where Victor Pinchuk and the project grantees signed a declaration on mutual intentions and commitments aimed at fostering a new generation of Ukrainian professional elites.

Addressing the winners, Victor Pinchuk stated: “It is important to have a dream. A dream, same as a brilliant idea, is 1% of success. The remaining 99% of success is your hard work and you have no shortage of that. For you it is really important to have a dream that will lead you. And this dream is a dream about Ukraine of tomorrow. And a dream to make our country great, to make it grand, is a really worthy one. During your studies abroad you will be ambassadors of Ukraine and upon your return you will present future in the homeland. And this is what I dream of”.

Among special guests of the ceremony were the President of Poland (1995-2005) Aleksander Kwasniewski, the British Ambassador to Ukraine H.E. Simon Smith, Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine H.E. Christoph Weil, and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine H.E. John F. Tefft. Each of the guests congratulated the winners of the program and wished them success and inspiration to reach set goals. They also urged young people to return to their homeland to become the driving force that will make Ukraine strong and successful, and, at the same time will push the country forward.

Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005): “I am extremely glad that you will travel and see different countries, different places, you will look how this contemporary world is working, what new ideas are in front of us, what kind of efforts it is necessary to take. This world is open to you; Ukraine needs you and will wait for you. I think the next 5 years after studies that you would spend in Ukraine, will be associated with the EU, will be spent in a better organized country – a country closer to your dreams”.

John F. Tefft, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine: “It is really an investment in each one of you but it is also an investment in Ukraine. It is a great country and it needs the smartest, the best prepared the best educated, the most pragmatic people that can see the way to the future. And this is one of the programs that really does it”.

Simon Smith, the British Ambassador to Ukraine: “Ukraine has an immense potential – potential in hydrocarbon resources, agriculture resources, but its most influential resource is human – it is you, the young generation of Ukraine. I am sure while studying you will find yourselves in positions where you have an opportunity to impact and argue, make your ideas heard, bring your creativity forward and come back to Ukraine ready to play your part in building the place for Ukraine in a wider successful European community.”

This year the Foundation will support 18 candidates pursuing Masters degrees in the following fields of study: agriculture, environment and ecology, alternative energies, law and public administration. The finalists of the fourth competition will commence their education in autumn of 2013 at the universities of Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, Greece, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the USA and Sweden.

The total sum of the grants provided by the Foundation for this project in 2013 - 2014 amounts to nearly UAH 3.3 million.

Over 100 applications from all regions of Ukraine were submitted for consideration during the open nationwide competition. To become a grantee, potential candidates had to select a Masters program independently and go through the application process successfully, passing all required tests. Following the preliminary selection, more than 60 candidates were invited to an interview to present their vision on how the acquired knowledge will be applied upon return to Ukraine. On the basis of the interviews, international selection panel decided on 18 finalists of the project.  

Apart from the representatives of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, this year’s WorlWideStudies selection panel included: Director of American Councils for International Education Yarema Bachinsky; Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation Inna Pidluska; Managing Partner of the law firm “Arzinger” Timur Bondarev; managing partner of the law firm «Dentons» Volodymyr Monastyrsky; Partner of the law firm "Vasyl Kisil & Partners" Andriy Stelmaschuk; Partner of the law firm "Sayenko Kharenko" Mykhailo Kharenko; councilor of Education USA advising centre Victoria Mikhailenko.

The grants will be used primarily to cover tuition fees, books and medical insurance. The grant amount is specified for each individual case based on the student’s needs and merits, covering up to 60% of the total amount required, but not more than USD 50,000 for the overall period of study, which does not exceed 2 years.

The Victor Pinchuk Foundation will expect students to give an undertaking to return to Ukraine and work in the chosen field of study for at least 5 years.

Photo gallery from the event is available in Photo and Video section at http://pinchukfund.org/en/photo_and_video/photogallery/290/All images are in high resolution and available for use by mass media

Winners of the fourth WorldWideStudied competition:

Victor Yeriomin
Sevastopol, age 23
University of Cambridge, MPhil in Environmental Policy

Diana Zadorozhna
Odesa, age 27
Erasmus Mundus: Central European University, University of Manchester, University of the Aegean; Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management

Tetiana Kanak
Kyiv, age 26
University of Glasgow, LLM in International Commercial Law

Roman Kononenko
Myrhorod, Poltava Region, age 26
Cornell University, Masters in Public Administration

Victoria Lapa
Dnipropetrovsk, age 23
University of Barcelona, International economic law and policy

Maksym Markevych
Kharkiv, age 23
University of Chicago, Master of Public Policy

Aishe Memetova
Simferopol, age 21
Bucerius Law School, Master in Law and Business

Olga Lykholobova
Stakhanov, Luhansk Region, age 24
University College London, MSc Democracy and Comparative Politics

Tetiana Pavlenko
Kyiv, age 23
Universitaet Hohenheim, Master of Science in Organic Agriculture and Food Systems

Inna Poliakova
Svetlovodsk, Kirovohrad region, age 24
Queen Mary, University of London, DL LLM Computer and Communications Law

Maksym Popovych
Kyiv, age 21
University of Leiden, Advanced Master in European and International Business Law

Khrystyna Rybachok
Ternopil, age 23
Central European University, MA in Political Science

Ihor Semenov
Rivne, age 27
Queen Mary, University of London, LLM in Comparative and International Dispute Resolution

Andriy Stetsenko
Kharkiv, age 24
Stockholm University, Master of Laws in International Commercial Arbitration Law

Tetiana Temniuk
Kyiv, age 26
The Vienna University of Technology and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Environmental technologies and International Affairs

Artur Chepenko
Irpin, Kyiv Region, age 21
Queen Mary, University of London, LLM in Commercial and Corporate Law

Kostiantyn Cherniaev
Donetsk, age 22
University of Groningen, Energy and Environmental Sciences

Taras Shabliy
Zhovti Vody, Dnipropetrovsk Region, age 23
University of Pittsburgh, LL.M. for Foreign Law Graduates

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