Every year, university websites invite students to join the BEST Kyiv community. Why does this community attract polytechnicians?
BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) is a student organization founded by enterprising young people of leading technical universities in Europe. United by a common goal and common values, they organize activities for the students’ comprehensive development.
BEST Kyiv works on the basis of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, therefore all members of the local group are the students or the graduates of our university. BEST Kyiv unites people from different faculties and specialties, organizes and conducts such events as engineering competitions ЕВЕС, hackathon INT20H, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Book Auction, BEST Courses.
The President of BEST Kyiv Asia Bondarenko enthusiastically shares: " We adapt easily to change. We are open to new things and we nurture the ability to be mobile and responsive. We get enjoyment from everything we do. We value positive emotions from work and strive to make our activities enjoyable for everyone.". Marichka Akrybai, who is responsible for public relations in the organization, adds: " We build relationships where people care, help and support each other. We value good relationships and teamwork and strive to do everything as well as possible."
Indeed, youth projects contribute to increasing the students’ level of professional knowledge at universities where BEST centers work, improving integration between students of different countries, providing them with the opportunity to gain experience in international cooperation, and to familiarize themselves with the culture and traditions of the host country. It is worth noting that since 2009, more than 400 students of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute took part in educational courses held at different European technical universities. The next project in which polytechnicians can participate is the educational course in Austria, which is to be held in February 2023.
"We will talk simply about the complex world of aerospace technology. Having mastered the knowledge of engineering disciplines necessary in this field, it will be possible to immediately apply them in practice," says Nastia Vinichuk, responsible for international cooperation. And, darkening, she adds: "Now it is extremely important to talk about everything that is happening in Ukraine, and informal dialogues are one of the best options."
Yes, the world should know what is happening in Ukraine: more than 2,670 educational institutions were affected, 331 of them were completely destroyed, more than 43 national universities were destroyed and damaged. BEST members protest against the aggressor and fight on their own level. "Just as all of Ukraine continues to deliver the truth about russia's crimes on the international arena, BEST Kyiv, BEST Lviv, BEST Vinnytsia, and BEST Zaporizhzhia are working to inform and gain understanding from the European student community," BEST Kyiv shares. - Since the first days of the war, Ukrainian local groups have been working to remove russian centers from the organization. On February 26, a working group was created, which acted in two directions: the direct removal of russian centers from BEST and the coverage of russia's crimes."
And what do we have for today? BEST Kyiv received the status of force majeure, i.e. exemption from all obligations to the organization. But the paradox is that russian local groups have received the same status. That is, the main organization puts the victim and the aggressor in the same conditions. Therefore, recently the members of the Ukrainian branches managed to create an international team that regularly spreads information about the war in Ukraine among the BEST community.
"We do not support the russian BEST centers, we do not cooperate with them in any way, and we do not have any partnership agreements. The position of the Ukrainian centers is the same - we condemn the current position of the international governing body and continue to influence their decisions and regulate the current situation by various methods, - sums up Asia. - The BEST community is an active European youth. We increase their awareness of the russo-Ukrainian war through our actions, demonstrate the realities in which we live today, and fight on the international stage for our right to have access to educational events where there will be no representatives of the aggressor country. It is important for us to keep our voice in Europe and be heard."