Sverdlovsk Region will select the Clever and Wise once again

Tenth graders in the Sverdlovsk Region can now apply for the regional round of the Clever and Wise televised academic competition. Applications are open on the Golden Section Foundation website until November 14. 

 

The first selection round, which includes an essay and general knowledge questions, will take place in schools at the end of November. Students who advance through this stage will be invited to the final round in Ekaterinburg in April-May 2025. This final event will closely follow the national competition's format, featuring semi-final and final agons, medals, agonists, and theorists. To help students prepare, the organizers will provide free online courses for all participants.

Three winners will be chosen at the regional final, with the jury potentially awarding additional prizes. These winners will then move on to represent the Sverdlovsk Region in the national Clever and Wise TV Olympiad competition in Moscow. The Empathy Foundation will fund their trip to the televised finals and award each of the three winners from the Sverdlovsk Region a grant of 100,000 rubles. In case any of them wins the national competition and secures admission to MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) without exams, they will also be eligible for a monthly scholarship allowance of 50,000 rubles from the foundation.

 

Moreover, the 2025 regional winners who choose to attend a university in the Sverdlovsk Region can qualify for a new scholarship funded by Mikhail Shelkov, founder of the Empathy Foundation and a shareholder in VSMPO-AVISMA.  This scholarship provides local university students with a monthly allowance of 30,000 rubles throughout the academic year, with prize-winning finalists eligible for a 20,000-ruble monthly allowance.

This regional qualifying round continues a new tradition established when Ekaterinburg hosted the first-ever Clever and Wise TV Olympiad competition in the Urals in spring 2023. Six Ural students went on to compete in Moscow, where, upon succeeding in the four selection stages, Kirill Epishenkov from Ekaterinburg won the national final and Matvey Chigintsev from Kamensk-Uralsky was named a prize-winner.

 

The competition in the Sverdlovsk Region is organized by the regional Ministry of Education and Youth Policy, the Empathy Foundation, and the Golden Section Foundation for supporting talented youth. Additional support comes from the Ural Institute of Management, Ural Federal University, the Humanities University, Ural State Pedagogical University, the Sverdlovsk Institute of Education Development, and the Youth Palace Center for Supplemental Education. Project launch in 2022 became an example of an effective collaboration between the regional education system and a private foundation.

 

Photo: Empathy Charity Foundation Press Service