UKELODEON: For The Next Generation (07/14/02)

UKELODEON

For The Next Generation

Rochester student is bound for Australia as young ambassador

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Stephen Fedyk, soon to be a seventh grader, is heading Down Under in July for two weeks as a participant in the People to People Student Ambassador Program. He will meet government officials, interact with other students and participate in numerous educational activities while representing the United States.

In September, Stephen received a letter saying that he was being offered a chance to be part of the program. After submitting recommendations from his teachers and going through an interview, he received the exciting news that he was accepted into the program. There are 39 other seventh graders who were chosen from upstate New York that will be part of his delegation.

The People to People Ambassador Program was founded in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in an effort to bring citizens around the world together to work toward world peace. He believed that ordinary citizens of different nations, if able to communicate directly, would solve their differences and find a way to live in peace. He wanted people to know and understand that while we are all very different, our values, goals, and day-to-day issues are very much the same. This simple thought - that people can make the difference where government cannot - is People to People's foundation.

President George W. Bush, who is honorary chairman of this student ambassador program, recently told students they, too, had a part to play in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, by establishing friendships with boys and girls all across the world.

Stephen has been meeting once a month with the program leaders and fellow students. He has had many assignments to prepare for his trip. So far, some of the topics he has researched and documented in his journal have been about Australia's climate, government, currency and economy.

Of all the things Stephen will do while in Australia - visiting the Sydney Opera House, spending a day with an aborigine tribe, snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef, spending a day with an Australian student - Stephen is especially excited about getting to see the unusual animals that live there. He did his school science fair project on "Unusual Australian Animals" so he says he can't wait to see some real live wombats, kangaroos and koalas.

Stephen has just completed sixth grade with high honors. He is a member of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization and the Yevshan Dance Ensemble and attends the "Ridna Shkola" Ukrainian Saturday school.

Stephen also enjoys playing sports. He plays on a Penfield major league baseball team and his team won first place in its division this year. He also plays on the Penfield Rangers travel soccer team and the Catholic Youth Organization basketball team.

Stephen also is learning Isshin Rye Karate and is hoping to get his black belt in a couple of years.

His parents, Oksana and Ihor, and his younger brother, Nicholas, are all very proud of Stephen and his many accomplishments!

Plast youths form clean-up brigade at local parish

WHIPPANY, N.J. - Young members of the Newark branch of the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization recently marshalled their forces during a special clean-up day here at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Parish, where they hold their weekly meetings and other activities.

The clean-up crew was composed primary of members of the girls' troop, as well as several boys - all of whom gladly performed this community service in gratitude to the parish that gave their Plast groups a home after their branch sold its headquarters in Newark, N.J.

The "yunaky" and "yunachky" cleaned up the church hall and kitchen, as well as meeting rooms located in the church basement. They also planted flowers in large pots to beautify the church grounds.

They were assisted by several younger kids, 10-year-old "novaky," who were assigned to a litter patrol, as well as a number of adult Plast members, as well as members of the "Ti Scho Hrebli Rvut" Plast sorority, who organized the clean-up day.

16-year-old scientist's passion shows in award-winning research

PARMA, Ohio - Ulyana Horodyskyj, 16, a junior at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio, has a passion for science, math and computers that has taken her to places few others of her age have been.

For the past three years, she has been working on an independent science research project involving solar sails, a cutting edge method of space propulsion that needs no fuel. She has presented her results to NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and at the John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

This year's research was titled "Evolution in Motion: Orbital Optimization Using Genetic Algorithms." It dealt with computing orbits for sending solar sails to Mars not only when rockets can make the trip, but also during times when the Red Planet is not accessible to rockets.

In March Ulyana competed with over 500 students from grades 7-12, in the Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair at Cleveland State University. She earned first place in the Earth and Space category, received five special awards, and won the grand award in Physical Science.

She will now represent Ohio at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Louisville, Ky., on May 12-18. This is the equivalent of the Olympics for students interested in science and engineering. Over 1,200 talented students from around the world competed for awards and scholarships in this year's event. Projects were on display to the public at the Kentucky International Convention Center.

At the Western Reserve District Science Day at the University of Akron, Ulyana received a superior rating, first place in the Earth and Space category, and an award for Outstanding Achievement in Education from Scientific American. She advanced to the State Science Day held on May 11 at Ohio State University in Columbus.

The first week of April saw Ulyana traveling to the University of Toledo for the Ohio Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, where she once again earned the Outstanding Paper award for the third year in a row, a feat that will certainly go down in the history of the Ohio Symposium.

The last weekend in April, it was off to San Diego, Calif. for the National Symposium, where her research earned second place in the Earth and Space Sciences category. Her award was a college scholarship. During the previous two National Symposiums (in Washington and Orlando) Ulyana had earned college scholarships for her original research, and she was also selected to represent the United States at the London International Youth Science Forum in England.

Her work has been noticed by other organizations as well. The Astronomical League gives young students between the ages of 14 and 19 whose schools do not offer astronomy as a field of study the chance to have their research screened and evaluated by a national panel of professional astronomers. In the league's Young Astronomers Award program, Ulyana took third place in the nation. This award was an unexpected but welcome surprise.

Last, but definitely not least, Ulyana has been chosen by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, based in Washington, to travel to Seoul, South Korea, this summer. She will be one of 21 students selected in a nationwide search to represent the United States in this unique cultural and scientific cooperative venture between the two countries.

The program's goal is to provide U.S. and Korean students with a demonstrated interest in science an international research experience. They will work in teams under the supervision of researchers and graduate and postdoctoral students in seven thematic areas: robotics, bioinformatics, physics, environmental sciences, chemistry, planetary and aerospace sciences, and zoology.

Young artist gets international exposure

MARLBOROUGH, Conn. - Budding artist Yuri Weselyj was the proud recipient of a national award for his art creation titled "Road to Paradise."

The artwork was submitted by his art teacher into the International Children's Art Exhibition sponsored by Pentel America.

This year 3,053 students from the United States entered their creations while more than 280,000 works were submitted from around the world. The United States won 310 awards.

These artworks, including Yuri's silver award-winning painting, will be traveling in a worldwide exhibit that starts in California and ends in Japan.

Yuri is a sixth grader at Elmer Thienes/Mary Hall Elementry school in Marlborough, Conn., where he lives with his family. His proud parents are Oleh and Luba Weselyj.

Mishanyna

To solve this month's Mishanyna, find the capitalized words in the letter from camp that appears below.

Dear Mom and Dad:

CAMP is fun. Yesterday during the SOCCER game I scored a GOAL. Then it started to Rain, so we had to get our PONCHOS. Later that night it stormed so hard that the power went out. We sat in a circle with our FLASHLIGHTS and told STORIES.

Tonight we're having a BONFIRE. Our counselor taught us a new SONG to sing there. We're also going to roast MARSHMALLOWS. I can't wait!

Next week we're going on a hike to the WATERFALLS. My counselor said that we can PACK our TRUNKS and go for a SWIM.

I miss HOME, but I'm having a great time.

Love,
Andriyko

P.S. The FOOD is better at home, but here we get ICE CREAM every day after dinner.

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