The things Ukrainian teenagers want for their birthday these days! Daryna Kolmyk from Kharkiv, for instance, asked her parents to send her to the Member of Parliament’s Assistant School in Kyiv for her 16th birthday, and they couldn’t refuse! Daryna has so far succeeded in everything she has done: singing and dancing, scientific research and public service. And she will need all these talents in order to become a politician, the positive-thinking Kharkiv-native believes.
“I believe that each of my paths leads to a great road.
Singing is about developing public performance skills and the ability to control my voice. Dancing is all about my gestures. They help me carry myself lightly and freely, develop a good posture, and feel confident on stage and in front of an audience. Scientific research for me is about expanding my horizons. When writing a research paper, you work with a large volume of literature, which in future will help you become more competent in your profession.
Public service, however, is probably the most important thing for me.
I am the leader of Leader XXI, our district youth organization, and the head of the Democratic Culture Center at the Kharkiv City Student Self-Government Organization.
The school currently concentrates only on students taking their External Independent Testing (EIT) exams. Nobody is concerned about developing students’ personality, or that we must be leaders in society, and we must be able to do a lot. For example, students at the university sometimes don’t even know how to make a presentation properly. Why can’t we be taught that in school? That is why we’re introducing training seminars, master classes for project management, and public speaking, so that students are prepared for adult life and also for working in a team.
In 2016 our organization implemented a project titled ‘The Feeling of One Family,’ for which children created works on the theme of ‘How I see new Ukraine.’ The students provided descriptions of their drawings, or wrote wishes to soldiers and sent them their photos. As a result, we developed a large, multi-colored book, which we presented to our soldiers, and that we will send to the ATO. We all worked together – children and teachers. This contact between adults and children is invaluable.
Some children depicted Ukraine made of concrete and glass, looking innovative, because for them the future is metropolises with skyscrapers. Others drew more a traditional Ukraine without war. They depicted the fighting in the east, and immediately made the transition to the future – beautiful fields with flowers, fences, houses, and families.
I dream of becoming a politician, and I want to show everybody that young people want to be, and can be, leaders. I want to work hard for Ukraine to become a developed, modern country, which at the same time does not betray its traditions.
Last year, I participated in the School of Success held by the Klitschko Foundation in Kyiv. And in autumn, my parents sent me to the Member of Parliament’s Assistant School. There, I once again confirmed to myself that I truly want to be a politician.
Sometimes I think about what I would do if I became the president. The first thing would be to transform Ukraine from a supplier of raw materials into a country that produces things. Ukraine is a country rich with raw materials. But why sell raw materials cheaply, when you could make a competitive product out of them and sell it on the global market? Reform needs to start with the economy.
However, despite these ambitious plans, I believe that we will be able to build a new nation on kindness, grace and mutual assistance and without envy or meanness. The new society must be built on trust in each other.
In my life, unfortunately, I have had to deal both with envy and meanness from my classmates. For example, you give a document to a person to deliver, and they don’t do it, and you think: ‘Ok. That’s the way you do things, but I’m going to do things differently.’ I realized that I did not need to be the same, but I also don’t need to show my weaknesses.
Be that as it may, I love being around people. If I go around with a smile I know that it will certainly lift somebody else’s spirits. I live to give people good, positive attitudes and belief in their own abilities. My life motto is ‘You should be the reason your neighbor smiles.’
I also want peace, because I really love my country.”
