The Victor Pinchuk Foundation Announced Names of 19 Winners of 2012 WorldWideStudies Program

On Thursday, June 21, 2012, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation has announced the names of 19 winners of the third competition under the WorldWideStudies program who will receive grants to pursue a Master’s Degree in the world’s top Universities, as ranked by QS or the Times Higher Education. The winners have been selected among 100 applicants. The total sum of the grants provided by the Foundation for this project in 2012 - 2013 amounts to nearly UAH 4.4 million.

This year the Victor Pinchuk Foundation grants are awarded to: ChrystynaAlam (Kyiv), AndriyVovk (Lviv), IelyzavetaGevoian (Kharkiv), SerhiyGrekov (Luhansk), IrynaDubynska (Kyiv), OleksandrZelenyi (Poltava), OrestMatviychuk (Lutsk), KyryloMolodyko (Kyiv),OlgaAleksandrova (Kyiv), SvitlanaOrekhova (Donetsk),OleksiyRyabchyn (Donetsk), SerhiySachuk (Kyiv),OlgaSynoverska (Kyiv), IevheniiaSlugina (Kyiv), ChrystynaKhripkova (Kyiv),MariiaTsarova (Kyiv), SerhiyChumakov (Makeyevka, Donetsk region), ArtemShaipov (Artemivsk, Donetsk region), IrynaIukhymenko (Kyiv).

At the occasion of the third WorldWideStudiescompetition 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. Additionally, the finalists have had a chance to communicate with diplomats of the countries they will be studying in, representatives of NGOs and business leaders.

The finalist of the third competition will commence their education in autumn 2012 at the Universities of the UK (9 students), Germany (1 student), Norway (1 student), Netherlands (2 students), USA (4 students), Sweden (2 students) in such fields as: environment and ecology (3 students), energy (2 students), law (11 students), and public administration (3 students).

Over 100 applications from all regions of Ukraine were submitted for consideration during the open nationwide competition. Following the preliminary selection, 50 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 interview, international selection panel decided on 19 finalists of the project.

Apart from the representatives of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, this year’s selection panel included: President of the Association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" Alex Lissitsa; Director of the American Councils for International Education in Ukraine Christina Pendzola-Vitovych; Executive Director of the European Business Association Anna Derevianko; Managing Partner of Horizon Capital Natalie Jaresko; Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation Inna Pidluska; Managing Partner of law firm “Arzinger” Timur Bondarev; member of the International Bar Association, Senior Advisor to the law firm "Vasyl Kisil & Partners" Vadym Belyanevych; Partner of law firm "Salans" Vladimir Monastyrskyi; Partner of law firm "Sayenko Kharenko" Mikhail Kharenko; manager 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 merit, 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.