KOZHINA Ksenia ,
The City of Volzhsky, Volgograd region,
Municipal Secondary School No.1, 11th grade ,
Age: 17

Ksenia is a participant of the 2009 Regional English Language Olympiad and the 2008 Civic Education Program in Washington. She is a winner of the “FLEX” student exchange program and holds a school-leaving certificate awarded by a secondary school in the town of Joshua, USA. She takes interest in music, history, foreign languages and volleyball and is keen on enrolling in higher education majoring in international relations.

«I see tolerance as an open, friendly attitude of a community or a state toward a human being regardless of his/her ides, behavior or opinion. Tolerance implies the ability “to see through” a person, which is, undoubtedly, a difficult, but extremely important skill to master for all of us. Tolerance requires regular and deliberate training. Last year, I was an exchange student in Joshua, a small town in Texas, USA. The success of my learning experiences very much depended on my ability to see and perceive people the way they are, in other words, on my readiness towards tolerant perception of the outside world. Based on the experience that I gained when being an exchange student, I realized that volunteer activities opened up a new world for a person.  Volunteer work is a new phenomenon in Russia. But it is an obvious indication of the society which is reaching maturity. If each of us tries hard to be tolerant and respectful toward other people, the world around us will become much friendlier.”