“Only if you’re willing and able to go to the end will you succeed,” reads the back of a young girl’s t-shirt at the Klitschko Brothers Foundation’s “School of Success.”
The quote
is attributed to Vitaliy Kltschko, the older brother of the legendary Ukrainian
boxing duo, whose charity fund sponsors the two-week summer camp. Located at
the Dzherelo (source) campsite, about
20 kilometers outside Kyiv, the course took off on July 21 with each
participant receiving a School of Success t-shirt – all of them with inspiring
quotes from thinkers like Steve Jobs, Margaret Thatcher, and, of course, the
Klitschko brothers.
Wladimir
Klitschko gave a presentation in the camp’s outdoor theater and held a question
and answer session with the kids. A 12-year-old girl asked him what, in his
opinion, is the best way to change the world.
“The worse
way to change the world is to wait for someone to bring the change,” he
answered, adding that people should first focus on improving themselves before
bringing positive change to the world. He finished his answer with the famous
John F. Kennedy “Ask not” quote.
Though this
“school” felt like a camp, looked like a camp, and was held on a camp ground, it
was more. The application process to attend is competitive and comprised of two
stages.
The first
stage requires the teens to choose a specialization to focus on while at the
summer school, while the second requires a video interview, in which they must list
prior achievements in their chosen fields. Some 150 young teenagers were chosen
from Ukraine this year, and for the first time in three years 10 kids from the
U.S. and another 10 from Kazakhstan were also able to attend.
The
specializations available, or as they call them “studios,” are journalism and
communications, photography, dance, theater, space and astronomy, ecology, IT
and games, cooking, music, and handmade crafts.
Among this
year’s participants was Yura Shikhovtsev, who graduated from school and
enrolled in the University of Shevchenko’s physics program all before his
fifteenth birthday. There was also Misha Machulin, who was accepted despite
being just 10 years old. Typically, the camp is offered only to kids aged 12 to
14. Misha is part of the Space and Astronomy studio, and he builds his own
rockets out of cardboard, which he said he launches in the evenings.
Taras
Jaworsky, the chaperone of the group from the U.S., said the camp gives the
students an opportunity to cultivate their talents and interests. The instructors in the studios, according to
him, are true experts of their fields. Jaworsky himself, who was raised and is
currently a teacher in the U.S., teaches English in the camp.
Other
notable instructors were singer Zlata Ognevich, who recently placed third at
the Eurovision competition, and Katya Osadcha, the host of TV channel 1+1’s
Social Chronicles, who talked about journalism and communications. And then, of
course, there were the Klitschko brothers.
Jaworsky’s
group of kids from the U.S. calls him “Pan (Mr.) T.J.” The group, all of Ukrainian
heritage, came from Chicago to participate. When asked which they preferred
more, their programs or their free time at the summer school, most said free
time, though after thinking about it all agreed that they liked both about the
same.
“We like
making friends here, and learning about our heritage,” said Maria Koval, one of
the 10 American kids.
Katya
Umanets, a volunteer at the school, said she was a participant last year, which
meant that this year she could only sign up as a volunteer. But she was
enthusiastic nonetheless.
“(The
School of Success) was a great opportunity for me, and to relive it as a
volunteer is wonderful,” she said.
Kyiv Post intern Sergey Bokhnyak can be reached
at [email protected].
