Ternopil, Ukraine

Many of the participants that we have visited so far have asked about delegate Tanya Kovalenko, who was a major contributor to topic group 17 (how to use technology to improve education). Although she wasn't ultimately able to attend the in-person Summit, because her visa was denied, Tanya continued with online discussions until her Internet access was cut off. However, Tanya is now back online at her University in Ternopil where she is studying business management and hoping to use those skills to improve business in her area of the Ukraine. Tanya is still convinced that the internet can make a big difference in the lives of children, and that internet usage needs to be more widespread in her own region. Our visit to Tanya's home town of Tornopil (Western Ukraine) was quite exciting - we took an 8 hour sleeper train there from Kiev, and spent the day touring the town with Tanya and her family.

You can email Tanya at yuri@ssft.net and find more pictures of her here.

Kiev, Ukraine

Sasha and her sister Olga picked us up from our hotel in Kiev to take us to their weekend home outside the city where their parents spend all their free time. Sasha, who is 19 now, is studying Marketing at Vienna-affiliated University in Kiev, and spends her spare time putting her many languages to work. Her classes are in English, she speaks Russian with her parents, and she often works as a translator in Italian! (The day before we arrived, she had spent the entire day working at an industry fair translating between Italian and Ukrainian.) Sasha also lives in a very internationally-minded home – both she and her sister have been on exchange programs in the United States, and the family often houses students from other parts of the world.

You can email Sasha at sgaletsky@hotmail.com and find more pictures of her here.