Six students from Sverdlovsk Region have been given the opportunity to enter the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) without taking part in the competition. The teenagers emerged victorious in the regional selection of the Gifted Girls & Brainy Boys humanitarian Olympiad. A URA.RU correspondent managed to obtain the names of the most talented students and personally meet them.
The final of the regional selection for the country’s biggest intellectual showcase took place at the Golden Ratio Foundation. A total of 30 top students from different cities in the region gathered in Yekaterinburg. They were supported by their parents.
The opening of the Olympiad final was conducted by the Minister of Education and Youth Policy in Sverdlovsk Region, Yuri Biktyganov. “Living only with science and technology is not enough. Culture also plays an important role in our lives. We have 38 theaters in our region alone. And how many museums, libraries and archives are there in Sverdlovsk Region? These are the things that are in high demand today. All these institutions are aimed not only at allowing pupils to acquire an education, but also at creating conditions that foster a desire to become educated,” the minister said.
Karina Knyazeva, the spokesperson of the Gifted Girls & Brainy Boys open Olympiad movement, also took to the floor. She encouraged the nervous participants and urged them not to be afraid.
“You are all already great achievers because you dared to enter this competition and made it to the final. You already have a wealth of knowledge, which, believe me, will be very useful in your life. Don’t be afraid of anything, after all, fortune favors the bold,” she told the students.
The participants and guests of the event were also expecting the creator and host of the show Gifted Girls & Brainy Boys, Yuri Viazemsky. However, he was unable to come to Yekaterinburg. Instead, he recorded a video message for the people of Sverdlovsk, in which he declared his love for the Urals.
Mikhail Shelkov, founder of the Empathy Foundation, expressed his thoughts on the event: “The work of Empathy is based on two interconnected vectors – supporting teachers and talented youth. The students from Sverdlovsk wouldn’t be able to participate in the Olympiad today without their teachers, whose diligent work remains behind the scenes. That’s why I would like to congratulate not only the winners, runners-up and all the finalists, but also the dear teachers. We have seen excellent results from your students in Gifted Girls & Brainy Boys, and you can rightfully be proud of them.”
The winners of the regional selection were Kirill Epishenkov, Matvey Chigintsev and Vladislava Agafonova. Three more people made it to the list of prize winners – Danil Shirokovskikh, Kristina Yaroslavtseva and Nadezhda Zorina.