We’ve had some pretty phenomenal students at Harrow School Online over the years, but Vlad is hands down the most inspiring.
Vlad joined us on a scholarship to study A levels, having never studied in the UK system at all, and with English as his second language. He was 15 when he joined us, so a year younger than most of the students in his year group.
He lives in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, which is a city that has been on the front line of the war and sees regular bombing and power cuts. Nowadays it’s probably most famous for its nuclear power plant, which was occupied by Russian forces in March 2022, raising concerns about a potential nuclear meltdown.
There are lessons where Vlad’s had to join from a phone, or from an air raid shelter, or miss the class entirely and watch the recording later. To take his A level exams, he had to travel by train to Poland, staying in an Airbnb in Warsaw.
His A level grades? Maths A*, Further Maths A* and Physics A*
He’s off to study computer science at the University of Southampton, which he chose over some other more prestigious universities because of the cutting-edge AI department. And to raise some funds for his living expenses in the UK, this summer, he worked for Highgrove Education (the new school run by the team from Harrow School Online) supporting our maths team with authoring flipped learning materials – because he really is that good…!
A huge thanks go to my dad here, who had a spare room and so could sponsor him for a Home for Ukraine visa, and to the fabulous Yuliya Kosko from Svitlo Education, who managed to find him a financial sponsor for the first year of his degree course.
And Vlad – you still don’t know how exceptional you are – but I hope that some of the comments on this post will convince you that what you’ve achieved is absolutely sensational. 💪
(Photo: From Vlad’s trip to the UK to pick up his visa, when he met up with his legendary maths teacher Harry Williams).
By Heather Rhodes, Founder and Principal.
