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.”