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.