Taltech Development Fund scholarship won by Vira Lavrova

Southwestern Advantage Foundation’s mission is to promote entrepreneurship education and experience for young people in European countries where the Southwestern Advantage student program operates.

Currently, almost 5% of the Estonian population is made up of war refugees from Ukraine, among them many children and young people. We want to support these people based on our statute.

In cooperation with the Taltech Development Fund, we awarded a scholarship of 1,300 euros to support a Ukrainian student studying at Taltech. All full-time Taltech students with Ukrainian citizenship could apply. At the event on December 8, Tallinn University of Technology’s Development Fund awarded a record amount of €196,650 in scholarships to a total of 110 active students. A total of 752 applications were received, out of those 6 were applications for our scholarship.

The winner of Southwestern Advantage Foundation’s scholarship “Towards goals in life” was 16-year-old Viva Lavrova, studying cyber security technology. Vira studied at the Kyiv Lyceum of Natural Sciences, which is among the top 8 secondary schools in Ukraine. Her respected chemistry teacher with over 30 years of experience describes Vira as an exceptional student who has excelled in chemistry, achieved good results in chemistry olympiads, and demonstrated strong leadership skills by inspiring her peers to take an interest in chemistry and helping them in their studies.

Vira stands out for her exceptional academic performance, will, and character. For her young age, she is very independent and ambitious: she works as a creator of programming teaching materials and lives independently in Tallinn largely without asking her parents for help. Vira’s current work is closely related to programming and software creation, and she is sure that this will help her in her future career as well.

Congratulations and good luck with your future endeavors, Vira!