Founders

Yuriy Petrushenko – Doctor in Economic Sciences, Professor. Research interests: lifelong education, civic education, transformative learning, international education, economic and social aspects of education. The author of more than 100 publications (textbooks, monographs, scientific and journalistic articles (including abroad). The main place of work is the head of the Department of International Economic Relations (organizational, scientific and teaching activities) of Sumy State University. Director of the Information Center of the European Union in Sumy region. Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Association of Adult Education. Received grants for conducting scientific research from such international organizations as the National Council of Economic Education (USA), Center for Advanced Studies and Education (CASE, Lithuania), The Economics Education and Research Consortium ( EERS), United Nations Development Program (UNDP Ukraine), Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (BpB, Germany). More than 10 years of experience in international project management. From 2011 to 2013, he was the coordinator of the network of universities-partners of the UN Development Program in Ukraine. Since 2017, he has been a GIZ expert, in 2017-2019 he worked as a financial decentralization advisor in the U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Program project. Since 2015, he has been constantly involved in educational and research projects of the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Association of Public Universities (DVV International). The initiator of the establishment of the Adult Education Center “Education for Life” in the city of Sumy in 2016.

Nadiya Kostyuchenko, Ph.D. (Economic Sciences), Associate Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Teacher Training, Associate Professor of the Department of International Economic Relations of Sumy State University. She has been engaged in educational programs for adults for many years; in 2017, she was awarded a diploma from the Sumy Regional Council for high achievements in scientific and methodological work, professionalism, and significant contribution to the training of highly qualified specialists. She is a regular speaker at international scientific and scientific-practical conferences, including the Baltic Program of Universities, The Learning Teacher Network (under the patronage of UNESCO), and others. She improved her qualifications by participating in more than 50 seminars, summer schools, forums, and other scientific events in Ukraine and European countries. Grant activity is broad and long-term: in 2011-2013, she worked on scientific research within the framework of a grant from the Economic Education and Research Consortium (EERC); in the period 2011-2014, she carried out research within the framework of the “Global Health Economics” project from the European University. In 2013, she received a grant from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine for an internship at the University of London (Great Britain). During 2015-2017, she implemented the Swiss-Estonian-Ukrainian project as part of the SCOPES grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2018-2019, Nadiya participated in the EduBUP project from the Baltic University Program (Sweden), acting as a mentor for teams of educators from Ukraine and Europe. In 2019, she implemented the international project “Two steps: Internationalization in practice – Sweden, Ukraine, Belarus” (Sweden). She is currently engaged in research activities within the framework of a scientific project from the Swiss National Science Foundation. She conducts training for various groups of participants: from students to adults, from business owners to representatives of local governments and non-governmental organizations.

Rymma Mylenkova, PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, gallery curator, cultural and educational programs’ designer , teacher, and co-organizer of public cultural events. She graduated from the Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko, Foreign Languages Department (English and German) in 1996; received an additional specialty at the Faculty of Postgraduate Education of the SDPU named after A.S. Makarenko (Practical Psychology) in 2005; studied at a postgraduate course at the Institute of Pedagogy of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv), in the laboratory of Innovations from 2005 to 2009 and defended her thesis on the problems of forming an innovative culture in 2009 at the University of Management of Education of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv). He has more than 50 educational and scientific publications. Now is working as a visiting scholar and a teaching fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Stuart Weitzman School of Design. In addition, she is a Board Member in the Lifelong Learning Center and a curator of the contemporary art gallery “BureauArt”. Her current realm of interest is an art as a tool for education and social change, as well as community engagement projects.

Denys Smolennikov, PhD in Economics, associate professor, associate professor at the Oleg Balatskyi Department of Management, head of the Department for Benchmarking and Statistics of Sumy State University. He received the scientific degree of candidate of sciences in 2017, majoring in “Economics of natural resources and environmental protection”. He has more than 120 educational and scientific publications. He is the organizer of all-Ukrainian and international conferences and educational projects. He is also an expert of the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education, the National Research Fund of Ukraine. He started his public activities in school, joining the Board of the NGO “Intellect-club”. He is one of the initiators and founders of the Footquest.sumy.ua movement and an organizer of various intellectual competitions for the youth of Sumy. He has experience in leading international scientific and educational projects, as well as organizing numerous events under the auspices of the EU/UNDP “Community based approach to local development” Project, the Baltic University Program, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Canadian-Ukrainian Trade and Investment Support Project, etc. He constantly improves his qualifications in educational institutions and organizations of the countries of the European Union, Great Britain, the United States of America and other countries of the world.

Serhii Khvostov, director of the Sumy State University Congress Center. He has been working in the field of education since 1997 when he started teaching at school No. 21 in Sumy. After that, he worked at the Social Service for Children, and since 2002, Serhii has taught the “Philosophy” course at UABS Academy and managed the Department of International Affairs. Since 2015, he has been the director of the Congress Center. Since 2013, he has been engaged in many educational projects for adults. Special attention is paid to projects for the development of entrepreneurship and business, civic education, and social entrepreneurship There are more than 100 organized events in the field of promoting the development of enterprises, entrepreneurship, and the business environment of the city and the region.

Hanna Shvindina, Dr. Sci. (Dr. Habil), Professor (academic rank), Associate Professor of the School of Business Administration at the American University Kyiv. She has been working in the field of education since 2001, where she received professional development from the position of teacher assistant to the professor of Sumy State University. She held administrative positions – deputy head of the department of management, then deputy director of the FEM Institute for R&D, and later she became a head of the department. Hanna has many years of experience in cooperation with educational institutions in Europe and the USA; since 2021, she joined the intercultural team of AUK (American University Kyiv) to implement a new level of education in Ukraine according to American standards. Since 2011, he regularly participates in grant research of various scales and social impact (city level, national level, international level). She is engaged in research and educational projects of various scales. The main focus is on projects in the field of entrepreneurship and industrial enterprises development, social and economic cohesion, civic education, mental health support for the residents, etc. A full resume can be found here LinkedIn