Academic season spring-summer 2023
This season was very busy for our scholarship holders. Immediately after the award, the teenagers began public speaking classes. The course was conducted by our permanent coaches and psychologists Iryna Yatsiv and Mariana Vasylchenko. During this 10-week course, the scholarship holders worked hard and each of them achieved high results. We are sincerely impressed with the work done by Iryna and Mariana and the achievements of the teenagers.
Also in early March, our scholarship holders successfully completed a first aid course from SMART Medical Aid. BLS – Basic Life Support – is a basic course that teaches the basics of first aid. Our teenagers learned in practice how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, stop bleeding and many other things necessary to help in emergency situations. Each participant successfully completed the course and received a certificate confirming their skills.
We held a one-day training on interaction with artificial intelligence (AI). Sergiy spoke in more detail about various examples and platforms, such as GPT, DAAL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, LLaMa, DeepL, and Bard. They talked about fakes that can be created using AI and the difference between fiction and fake. Sergiy explained how to properly make queries to AI. We looked at the main opportunities for AI development and its threats. And, of course, there was a lot of talk about the future of humanity in coexistence with AI. And it is up to us to choose what it will be like, because it depends on the integrity of the people who create, develop, and use it.
“May AI help us in our scientific and cultural endeavors!” – this phrase was written to us by ChatGPT. So, we believe that he has good intentions.
We also met with Elsa Sagura, CEO of the creative agency Bloom Büro, a creative and brand strategist. We talked about unfair advertising and media manipulation. Elsa gave examples of how advertising influences our worldview and talked about situational marketing (good and bad). She emphasized the importance of being aware of advertising technologies and being critical of the messages we see and hear.
We talked a lot about speculation on the war in Ukraine. Why is a beetle poison called Bayraktar, Ukrainian Armed Forces sausage, Javelin tests, or even Butch Kambucha not just a joke, but also dangerous? Because it is precisely such speculations that normalize war, make it routine, and distract from the true attributes of war.
The best indicator that the My First Scholarship program is fulfilling its mission is the success of our scholarship recipients. And it is especially valuable when our scholarship holders share their experience with the rest of the program participants.
Our Ania Merchuk, a scholarship holder of the 6th intake, left for the UK with her mother last April. While abroad, Anya and a local volunteer, Derek, set up a charity organization called Nadiya. Since then, they have helped more than 700 Ukrainians fleeing the war. They help them get a visa, find housing, a transfer, and financial assistance. They also cooperate with other charitable organizations, such as the Clooney Foundation, to publicize the war crimes of the Russians against families fleeing the occupied territories.
Anya and Derek came to Ukraine for just a few days for a conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but in this crazy schedule, they found time to meet with us and share their experience with the fellows. It was really inspiring and motivating. Anya, we are proud of your aspirations and thank you for everything you do!
A course on democracy from UCU.
The International Institute of Ethics and Contemporary Issues of the Ukrainian Catholic University held a 4-week course on the role of democracy in society for our scholarship holders.
“Young people are the future of democracy. If you are young, you are like a superhero from Marvel movies. You have great powers (your voice, energy, ideas), and you need to use these powers for good!” These are the words our scholarship recipients heard from Oleksandr Monastyrskorgo. Oleksandr is a 3rd year student of political science at the Ukrainian Catholic University, and he was a lecturer at the course and told the teenagers about how young people can influence society now.
A workshop on storytelling by Travis Johnson.
The American English School Stryi invited Travis to conduct a workshop on storytelling for the scholarship holders. So, our teenagers learned how to write stories, convey emotions, and develop their creative thinking and acting skills. All this in an interactive way and with a native English speaker.
The program consisted of three parts. First, the teenagers learned how to express their ideas and compose stories. Then they learned to dilute it with intonations and emotions. And finally, they practiced their acting skills.
It was a great opportunity for the scholarship holders to improve their public speaking skills and practice their English.
