The winners of Viktor Pinchuk’s Zavtra.UA foundation scholarship program came to Kyiv on a “Dream” to see their dream come true, flying in on the world’s largest Ukrainian-made aircraft Mriia (“Dream”). Besides receiving a scholarship, the competition winners also had an opportunity to meet influential people and get a job after graduating from their higher educational institutions.
A few months ago, 14 top-ranking colleges and universities of Ukraine advertised a scholarship program set up by the Zavtra.UA foundation: senior students were encouraged to design and submit to a jury a project in their field of studies.
The student projects were evaluated anonymously, which excluded any possibility of favoritism. About 460 projects submitted to the competition passed through three stages, with experts assessing the quality of the work as well as students’ personal characteristics. As a result, about 200 people, who had earned 26 points out of a maximum 30, became winners of the foundation’s scholarship program. It is especially gratifying to note that included among the winners are more than 15 Ostroh Academy students, who have won scholarships founded by The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna.
Each of the winners is eligible for a grant of 6,000 hryvnias to be paid out over 12 months. To receive financial aid next year, students will have to design new projects. “Winning this competition means prestige and encouragement for further work,” says Prof. Yaroslav Yatskiv, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and chairman of the contest’s board of trustees.
In the academician’s view, this competition is also a good opportunity for young people to launch their careers, as contestants will remain under close supervision after graduation and receive job placement assistance. In addition, gifted students will be invited to various scholarly conferences and workshops. In other words, they will be given a chance to be in touch with one another and with the people who have already achieved success. “The most talented ones can win a grant,” Yatskiv continues, “and when they come to a university to carry out their projects, they will not have to worry about the low salaries in academic institutions.”
The contest is mainly aimed at discovering and developing promising young talent in Ukraine. “Our ultimate goal is to help the younger generation enter society, business, and politics,” Pinchuk says.
Young people agree: they say this scholarship is a wonderful opportunity, but their graduations are just around the corner. “The point is not money. It is prospects,” says Viktoria Volenko, a 5th-year student at the National Metallurgical Academy.
“We have met many people here, exchanged telephone numbers and email addresses with them. We are going to stay in touch.”
For this year’s competition Volenko designed a highly profitable waste-treatment facility. Taisiia Kotorevska of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy focused on non-destructive quality control: any metal component can be quickly inspected on a conveyer belt. The jury singled out about 200 promising projects, which may help solve many of our country’s problems in the future. All that these students need is a fair chance. “This competition has various aspects to it, not just material,” Pinchuk says.
The awards ceremony, held at the Antonov Aircraft Factory, was attended by numerous businessmen and celebrities, including the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, the first American woman of Ukrainian descent to go into space. The astronaut admitted that at one time she depended a lot on a scholarship, and there is no telling whether she would have otherwise become an astronaut.
Pinchuk thinks that people like Heidemarie can serve as a good example for the younger generation, because both Coelho and Stefanyshyn-Piper achieved success exclusively through their own efforts.
The Ukrainian-American astronaut believes that the only formula that helped her reach the American dream is hard work. Pinchuk added one more important factor: success. He says that 15 years ago he invited two business partners to dinner in Davos. One of them was a young Ukrainian boy and the other, a well-established American businessman.
Pinchuk bought the young Ukrainian an airplane ticket to the US, where he later graduated from two prestigious universities: Columbia and Harvard. He returned to Ukraine a millionaire and finally got the chance to thank the individual who once helped him achieve success in life. “It was his success alone,” Pinchuk says. “Now it should be up to Ukrainian business, which is interested in young people.”
It is unlikely that every student project will attract attention, but at least they will have had a chance. “We are giving young people the main thing: belief in themselves and a choice,” says Yatskiv, “and I hope Ukraine will be their choice.” Next year Zavtra.UA is planning to increase the number of scholarship recipients.
