Among the first scholarship recipients of the Zdenek Bakala foundation may be a future minister or the inventor of the cure for cancer The Zdenek Bakala Foundation started its SCHOLARSHIP program in the spring of this year This program supports gifted students who want to study at prestigious universities abroad About 147 students applied in the first round • • Among the applicants were 81 boys and 66 girls Almost half of them are students in their last year of secondary school and the rest of them are between the ages of 20 and 33 • 41 scholarship applicants have already been accepted to universities in the USA, 55 in Great Britain, 14 in other countries of the EU and 10 to universities in Asia • 68 students want to study humanities and 61 want to study natural science • 51 students are from Prague, 43 are from the rest of Bohemia, 19 are from Northern Moravia, from Southern Moravia and from Slovakia • Most of the applications came from the J Keller Gymnazium in Prague, from Open Gate in Babice near Říčany, from the Ch Doppler Gymnazium in Prague and the Matyáš Lerch Gymnazium in Brno • The student average of the SCHOLARSHIP applicants is up to 1,6 • The students have an English level of C1, which is equivalent to the state exam or the tests CAE, TOEFL Some students have the C2, which is the highest level and is equivalent to the CPE • The goal of the university students is the successful completion of their studies, because it is one thing to get into a prestigious school and another thing to get a degree at a school with a completely different system from that in the Czech Republic • The goal of the applicants currently at secondary schools is to successfully fill in the application, write a good essay, succeed in the entrance exams and find a good pedagogue, who will write a nice letter of reference • Most of the students have excellent results in their extracurricular activities as well Many of them are winners of various competitions, Olympiads and recipients of awards including the prize of Goldman Sachs Global Leaders, as well as awards for community service From the 147 applications, the selection committee selected the best 22 students They were invited to interviews that took place in Prague on the 30th of August The students were divided into two categories – students from secondary school and from univiversities Each scholar had twenty minutes for his/her presentation in front of the committee Among the members of the committee were some well-known people Some of them had studied at universities abroad, some are respected authorities in education and some are English native speakers For example, pedagogue and publicist Tomáš Klvaňa, the economist Tomáš Sedláček, the education expert Jana Straková, members of the board of the ZB Foundation Otto Jelinek (former minister in the Canadian government, later manager of the audit company Delloit) and Pepper de Callier (author, columnist and founder of The Prague Leadership Institute) Most of the applicants made a big impression – One of them already has a plan for pension reform, another student knows how to negotiate peace between two enemy states, others are getting ready to battle cancer One medicine student impressed us not only with his expertise, but with his sensitive approach to patients Michaela Maláčová, Chairwoman of the Board of the Zdenek Bakala Foundation and head of the selection committee: „ Whenever I start to doubt the purpose of our foundation or the future of our country, I think about the accomplishments of our candidates and I feel much better They were intelligent, interesting, determined and full of energy, humaneness and wisdom at their very young age I look forward to how their lives and careers are going to develop in the future I am sure we are going to hear about some of them.“ Tomáš Sedláček, Chairman of the Selection Committee for university students:“It was one of the nicest days of my professional career The students were great.“ The Board of the Zdenek Bakala Foundation decided to financially support 12 students in this round They put in their best efforts and showed exceptional talent and strong motivation They are: Daniel Bartoň, Branko Černý, Ondřej Černý, Christina Gladková, Monika Hlávková, Filip Rozsypal, Marie Salomonová, Ondřej Suchánek, Šimon Podhajský, Matěj Šenkárčin, Martin Výška and Dagmar Zadražilová They are studying at the London School of Economics, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Dartmouth College The younger ones are awaiting entrance exams at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge Students' reactions: „The whole selection process was an experience To see that I am not, by far, the only one with such ambitions is extremely motivating I thank you for allowing me to talk about what is missing in our country and how it is possible to provide it, with a selection committee full of people who have invested their effort and know-how into this cause It was nice to get deeper in this discussion and not just stay at the surface Out of all the debates that I had experienced this past summer, this one was by far the best.“ „I am glad that I will represent not only the Czech Republic but also our Foundation, and I will everything I can in order to be accepted to a prestigious university in the following months.“ How important is it to write a good essay? Whoever did not write a creative essay lost a lot Many of the essays were great The young people wrote about how boring and uninspiring the academic world can be in the Czech Republic They described what attracts them to foreign universities and contemplated how they will use their quality education “Dad, could I go to Harvard one day?” asks a student in one of the essays Now he knows that thanks to the ZB Foundation he can Another student „ needs challenges in life and wants to be surrounded by people who feel the same“ She does not want to be „mediocre“ Another one writes that from the profit from the sale of NWR stocks he bought his brother a bicycle and paid for a plane ticket to the USA, and the trip changed his life Today, he knows that his life will be changed by studying in the USA, an opportunity made possible by the Zdenek Bakala Foundation These and other essays, which are inspiring reading, as well as guidelines on how to write a motivational essay, can be found at http://www.nadacezb.cz/dokumenty/scholarship/ Scholarships are awarded by the ZB Foundation for one academic year If a student has good results during that year, the Foundation is ready to financially support this student in the following years From the planned 000 000 - 10 000 000 Czech crowns designated for talented Czech students there are about 000 000 left for this year This money will be divided among the most successful students from the autumn round, which ends October 15