Mykola Kozak, 17, from the village of Zasluchne, Krasyliv County, Khmelnytskiy Oblast, decided to enroll into Khmelnytskiy Lyceum on its Advanced Study of Sciences course. There, the most talented children from the oblast study during their 10th and 11th grades.
“In truth, nobody comes here as a genius. It’s here, in this lyceum, that the kids develop their skills and their knowledge and, as a result, can achieve success.
At first, I simply wanted not to be the worst here. But with time, I started to achieve good results and I saw that I also have some talents.
I felt that I’d achieved something when I took my first tests and did well in them. Then came the mathematics and physics Olympiads. First, there was the selection stage at the lyceum, and I passed it. After that was the city stage, and I also got a good result there. And then I realized that I’m really capable of something. At the oblast math Olympiad I finished third, and at the physics Olympiad – first. At the All-Ukrainian Physics Olympiad in Kryviy Rih, I fell short of a few points of reaching the top three.
At the 11th grade, I participated in the Competition of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with a scientific paper entitled ‘Methods of Compensating for Peak Loads in the Power Grid.’ I took first prize at the oblast stage and the third prize at the All-Ukrainian stage of this competition with this paper.
My parents knew I had a gift for the exact sciences, but when I began winning prizes, they were surprised and happy.
They are mainly into agriculture. Mom also works at the kindergarten in our village. And my dad works construction in Khmelnytskiy and in Krasyliv.
If you take my village, it seems that it is only regressing over time. Earlier, we had a bakery and a farm there. Now, the population is shrinking and a lot of things there just got ‘frozen in time’. However, the village did recently receive funding for the construction of a sports complex at the local school.
But working in the village is not encouraged in any way. The prices for agricultural goods are low, because there are large companies that produce a lot and it is hard for small farmers to compete with them.
A lot of the people in the village have made peace with the conditions they are living in, and simply don’t want to change anything. That’s why I think that the young people need to be encouraged and supported. Because the young people have the desire and inspiration to do something, but with time it goes away.
In the future I’d like to see my village more developed, looking like a European village in France, Italy or Spain. There, you can’t even say they look like villages: all the houses look tidy and the streets are clean.
I see myself a part of some big company in the future that will be doing something big.
I haven’t chosen my future profession yet, but I know the field I want to work in. I’d like to design devices, be in engineering, specifically computer engineering. I’d like to create something new in these spheres.
I’d like for Ukraine to be civilized and scientifically developed in the future, because right now science is not progressing very well. The majority of talented scientists go to study abroad and then stay to work there. As a result, no new technologies are created in Ukraine, and it has nothing to offer to the world.
As for me, I’d like to stay in Ukraine. My parents are here and I’d like to visit them or take them with me to wherever I end up living.
The most important thing for a man is courage. He must be able to protect his family, to provide for it, to be an example to his children and a support for his wife, an interesting interlocutor, a good friend, a happy, communicative person. And he must be in good physical shape.
I’d like to become the kind of ideal person that I’ve just described.”
