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"I am happiest when I feel useful to people, especially those who are younger," confesses Anahit Martirosyan, a 2019 UWC Dilijan graduate. She is still studying medicine (health science) at university, but has already launched her own educational project with her friend Flora Harutyunyan, also a UWC Dilijan alumna.

K7 Workshops are new educational opportunities for children from Armenian regions. The girls organize workshops in Kapan, "in a wonderful place hidden in the mountains above the village of Verin Vachagan," says Anahit. - So far we have organized two workshops on acting, performance art and astrophotography". The initiative was supported by the UWC National Committee in Armenia.

Education seems to be Anahit's passion. In addition to K7 Workshops, Anahit works in a private tutoring company, teaching math, chemistry and biology. Her students include both pre-schoolers and university students. Last summer, Anahit joined the "Just Dilijan It!" team as a facilitator of a UWC short-term course held at her alma mater's campus in Dilijan.

"I have always had a free mind, but studying at UWC has given me more confidence and strength to embrace it," says Anahit. Let us also wish her success on the noble path she has chosen!

He considers his greatest achievement to be his work on the popular animated series Masha and the Bear. He started out as an animator, worked his way up to director and storyboard artist, and even wrote several of his own episodes for the main show, so beloved by both children and adults.

But it turned out that Vladimir's real calling is education. "I find teaching very rewarding," he says. - My whole family worked as teachers." This year, Vladimir returned to Ringling College of Art and Design, from which he graduated in 2016 - now as a teacher.

"Thanks to UWC, I have the opportunity to study abroad and get the skills and education I need to do so. And teaching is an opportunity for me to 'give back' to the community." We have no doubt that the author of these words will raise more than one generation of professionals for whom active gratitude and service to others is a way of life.

For as long as mankind has existed, there has been a search for a recipe for eternal youth. Today, we live much longer than our ancestors, but our advanced years are inevitably marred by age-related diseases. Biotechnology companies around the world are working to learn how to defeat and prevent serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, etc., and open the way to healthy aging.

Svitlana Kononenko, a 2017 graduate of UWC South East Asia, works at one such company. "I am working on a project that aims to test a new framework for drug development to treat glioblastoma. The project started before I joined the company, but I took an active part in it, implementing several biophysical and cellular assays to test preclinical drug properties," says Svetlana.

Such work requires persistence and courage, without them scientific discoveries cannot be made. These qualities, Svetlana believes, were instilled in her by her studies at UWC. She is also curious and eager to find new ways to communicate and teach them to others. During her college years, Svetlana became interested in learning sign language. She organized a sign language club, and the university gave her and her like-minded friends the opportunity to create a theme house for the club and a learning community within it. The combination of education and a community of like-minded people is a case where two and two add up to five.