5th "Zavtra.UA" Youth Forum in Kyiv ended

The 5^th Annual Zavtra.UA Youth Forum that gathered this year’s winners of the Zavtra.UA nationwide scholarship program of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation – over 300 best students selected among 1 859 candidates from more than 100 Ukrainian universities – has ended.

During three days, from May 12 through to May 17, fellows and guests of the Forum, entitled «How to Create Tomorrow», tried to answer the question of what the future education would be like and what one should study and learn in the unstable world. They tried to predict major changes to occur in various areas over the next 30 years, and to describe major threats faced by humanity, drafting the most favourable action plan for a new generation. The first two days of the Forum were devoted to team building and project sessions, as well as development of social projects covering culture, healthcare, education, environment, human rights, etc.

Young scholars enjoyed lectures given by Pavlo Sheremeta, Institute of partner strategies “Inspira”; Andrei Volkov, rector of the Moscow School of Management “SKOLKOVO”, and

Mr. Stephen Gullgren, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Ukraine.

Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikipedia, Wiki concept creator and a member of the Board of Trustees at Wikimedia Foundation, appeared as a special guest at the 5^th Zavtra.UA Youth Forum in Kyiv, visiting Ukraine for the first time. He met with the winners of Zavtra.UA scholarship program, delivered a speech and presented awards to the winners of his personal rating of the young scholars at the Forum Award Ceremony on Monday, May 14.

Among the lucky ones to receive awards from Jimmy Wales were Yana Emyr-Velieva (Taurida National V.I.Vernadsky University – 1^st place), Volodymyr Zhyvytskyi (Kirovohrad State V. Vynnychenko Pedagogical University. - 2^nd place) and Eugene Merkulov (Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics - 3^rd place).

Summarising the results of 2011-2012, two projects were nominated as the best social community initiatives: "Feel my heart" – the project aimed at social and psychological support for children with cancer, and their parents; Youth Festival of Amateur Film "Ranok" intended to draw attention to the most crucial social problems and encourage young people to solve them, and also to form a nucleus for amateur film enthusiasts in Ukraine. Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Serhiy Tigipko presented awards to the winners in this nomination, and singled out Youth Festival of Amateur Film “Ranok”, offering its organizers to present their best amateur films at the 3rd Odessa International Film Festival.

Also, the new winning social initiatives which are to receive financial and administrative support of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation were announced. These include:

• “Business Games.UA” – a project intended to take children away from computers, restore live communication among them and promote active lifestyle;
• “Open your rights” - a project intended to increase awareness among students in relation to their rights and obligations, and deepen their legal and economic knowledge;
• “Restart” – is designed to offer special training courses for social adaptation of young people held in juvenile prisons;
• “TUDOS” (Talented Ukrainian Children Gifted in Sports ) – a project with a mission to look out for sport talents in children from boarding-schools and help develop their athletic abilities through official and professional sports organizations;
• “A Drop of Hope” - a campaign to encourage young people donate blood in blood transfusion centres.

On May 15, before leaving Kyiv, young scholars visited an exhibition by Anish Kapoor and attended a public lecture given by Jimmy Wales “The Internet: Changing Tomorrow”.