Once again, the Talents of New Europe Grant Program has allocated 66,000 Euro to talented young people this year
- The Central European Foundation and Slovnaft have once again supported the most talented children and youth in Slovakia this year with a grant in the amount of 66.000 Euro
- The grant money was divided among 54 young athletes, artists and scientists
- Over the past 11 years, 350 young talents in total have been supported through the grants with the amount of over 717.000 Euro
Exceptionally talented children and youth from the areas of science, arts, and sports have once again received financial support from the Talents of New Europe grant program awarded by Slovnaft and the Central European Foundation.
Panels of experts have decided that out of 185 applicants participating in the 11th year of the grant program, 54 have become the Talents of New Europe. The financial support has been divided among 30 athletes and 24 artists and scientists. The determining criteria were the results achieved at an international level as well as the perspective for further talent development.
“Each year, we find new young personalities who surprise me with their vision and determination to follow their dreams. I am happy that our laureates from previous years are now studying at prestigious international universities, are members of the best musical ensembles, are working as part of the best scientific teams and are achieving exceptional sports results,” said Szilvia Czuczor, the Executive Director of the Central European Foundation.
In the final rounds, even the experienced judges were surprised by the excellent presentations put on by the talented young people. Presiding the panels this year were Ilona Németh, a graphic artist, Anatolij Dvurečenskij, a mathematician from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), Peter Čerman, the director of the Bratislava Conservatoire, Ľubor Tománek, a teacher from the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Ernő Kelecsényi, the vice president of the Slovak Handball Association, Denis Bohumil Schvarcz, the editor in chief and owner of the www.takurcitee.sk portal, Tomáš Bertók, a chemist from the SAS, and Jozef Lupták, a cellist.
One of this year’s TNE laureates is 18-year-old Filip Martinský from Liptovský Hrádok, who is a ballet and dance theater performer. Apart from creating his own choreographies, he is also the winner of many ballet and dance events and the 2015 world champion in contemporary dance.
Another exceptional talent is only 16 year old IT scientist Ondrej Vrábel. He is the author of the Pinf computer games, developed for children with special needs, for which he was awarded the Crystal Wing award. He will use the grant to support the distribution of his games to schools all over Slovakia so they are available for as many special needs children as possible.
In the sports sector, the grant was given to a 10 year old ski jumper Hektor Kapustík. He is a two-time national champion of the Slovak Republic and a member of the Slovak representation. His dream is participation at the Olympic Games one day in a category that used to be one of the more successful ones for our country.
“All these talented young people are already better at something than their peers in Slovakia. This is the basic requirement for having bigger ambitions, for example to be also successful abroad. We would like to support them in this because it would be a shame to waste all this talent only due to lack of finances,” adds Anton Molnár, the head of Corporate and Marketing Communications at SLOVNAFT, a.s.
During the 11 years of the Talents of New Europe program’s existence, 350 talented children and youth have been awarded grants in the total amount of more than 650,000 Euro. These finances were used for example for purchasing of laboratory equipment, musical instruments, books, and sports equipment. A large part of the financial means has also gone to the financing of professional and study programs abroad, participation in sports events and practices.