Post on 04-Jul-2020
transcript
2014 International Education Week Contest Winners
We received a great response to our IEW contests this year, and we would like to thank all of you
for your participation. Congratulations to our contest winners and runners-up!
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BEST POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Winner: Imran Jocson, YES-Philippines
Runner-up: Anastasiya Melko, FLEX-Russia
BEST CREATIVE (NON-POWERPOINT) PRESENTATION
Winner: Natasa Dramicanin, A-SMYLE-Serbia
Natasa’s interactive presentation involved wearing traditional Serbian clothing and cooking
Serbian pancakes for her classmates. She also taught them traditional dance and the Cyrillic
alphabet.
Runner-up: Alia Ali, YES-Kenya
Alia asked a group of schoolchildren to draw pictures of how they perceived Africa and then
discussed the drawings while also teaching Kenyan games. She also taught them verses from
the Qur’an!
BEST ARTISTIC RESPONSE
Winner: Yusnitafili Harefa, YES-Indonesia
Yusnitafili created a trifold to represent the beauty of her home country. She worked for over a
week creating the “wayang” shadow puppet on the left alongside the names of Indonesia’s
provinces. She also incorporated over 30 different pictures.
Runner-up: Nigar Huseynova, FLEX-Azerbaijan
Nigar’s poster demonstrates her impressive drawing skills. We loved this colorful display of Azeri
symbols and the flag in the shape of the country!
BEST PHOTO
Winner: Simoniesa Antonius, YES-Suriname
Runner-up: Nurkyz Bakytbekova, FLEX-Kyrgyzstan
BEST VIDEO
Winner: Roy Atallah, YES-Lebanon
Roy’s video included a montage of his classmates learning a traditional Lebanese dance and a
fun “Q&A” about Lebanon with his American peers.
Runner-up: Zorana Dulovic, A-SMYLE-Montenegro
Zorana’s video features her singing her country’s national anthem!
BEST WRITTEN RESPONSE
Winner: Yekaterina Sysoyeva, FLEX-Russia
“International Education Week is an amazing opportunity to share your experience with other
people. The wonderful thing is that there are lots of people who are interested in learning
something new about your country and I do love this feeling when you give a person something
interesting about your country and he or she knows more. In such moments I feel a real
ambassador of Russia! And people do not expect me to tell them something scientific or
historical, no, they are interested in little things that are common in our everyday life! And the
questions that people asked me after and during the presentations show that our countries have
lots of different things and things in common at the same time … Americans like that we have
lots of traditions in Russia, and one of the things I like about America is that people stay young in
the heart when they are 70. Some people are thinking about visiting Russia because they are
amazed by its history, infrastructure, history and people … Citizens can make the opinion about
your country looking at you because you can be the only person from that country they will ever
meet in their lives. It’s very important to be a good ambassador because it impacts not only the
student’s life but also the lives of people who surround me.”
Runner-up: Anna Gorina, FLEX-Russia
“International Education Week is over, and now when I have already participated in this huge
cultural event I can understand how important it was for me and all the audience which was
listening … American Councils gave me this opportunity to “break the ice” – all the
misunderstanding that might have been influenced my media. (We all know about political
tension between Russia and the US which is actually has nothing in common with average
people and cultural benefits.) It was (and it still is) my main goal - to introduce Americans to a
“new Russia” and maintain friendly ties and relationships … International Education Week has
made people from different hemispheres and continents closer, friendlier and kinder to each
other. It was a significant event in my life to be even more proud of my country because while I
was working on my presentation, I realized how great Russian culture is. I’ve become more
patriotic.”