Age: 27
Education: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
Profession: Lawyer and co-founder of an education center for teachers and schools
Did you know? She loves hiking in the mountains. The most unusual place where she hiked was Volcano Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
The two most difficult problems of the Ukrainian education system are inflexibility and rejection of progressive teaching methods. Liliya Borovets is fighting to change that.
Born and raised in Velyki Mosty, a town of 6,000 people in Lviv Oblast, Borovets got a precious gift from her parents — the desire to study.
Although it was economically hard for many families in Ukraine during the 1990s, her parents prioritized education. When she was in high school, they would even send her to international camps in Poland and Sweden, which gave her a broader perspective.
“My father always told me, ‘People can take away everything from you except your education,’” says Borovets. “I grew up with an inner feeling that education would help me in life.”
After graduating from Lviv University, Borovets and her two friends created the Pro.Svit center in 2016 to help improve the way Ukraine’s education system works — from introducing innovative programs for Ukrainian teachers and principals to making schools work better.
Their brave step was fueled by feedback collected during a revious educational project on providing courses for teenagers in Lviv on how to foster teamwork, recognize talent and leadership.
“Teachers realized that there are other ways of working with students and it is possible to teach children not only by giving them direct orders, but to communicate more, create teams and space for new ideas,” says Borovets.
Four years after they launched Pro.Svit, 3,200 principals, teachers and students from 105 schools have participated in various programs and projects initiated by the nonprofit.
Over 300 of the projects have been crowdfunded through the organization’s GoFundEd platform — 4,500 donors have raised $140,000 for projects and ideas proposed by teachers and students.
Borovets’s favorite one is called Compola, a campaign to encourage students and schools to compost food waste from school kitchens.
The idea was proposed by a 12-year-old boy and girl from one of Kyiv’s schools. The idea was to install special containers with worms that turn waste into plant-friendly fertilizers. The Ministry of Education has supported the idea and installed the containers in 200 more schools across the country.
Borovets sees that many people are willing to support innovative approaches. But one thing makes her sad still — often teachers who go through Pro.Svit programs face resistance from their peers.
“Changes are very often not welcome in schools,” says Borovets. “School administrations don’t like new initiatives.”
She is working to change that. “We want schools to become organizations that constantly learn and develop,” says Borovets.
