YESSENOV FOUNDATION LAUNCHES NEW ACADEMIC YEAR

Aiganym, how does the Foundation start its 12th season?
In February 2025, the Academician Shakhmardan Yessenov Science and Education Foundation, founded by a businessman Galimzhan Yessenov and Aizhan Yessim, chairman of the Foundation Board of Trustees, will celebrate its 12th anniversary. Over the past 11 years, we implemented 55 programs and projects, received more than 10,000 applications, and allocated more than 2,000 grants. The Foundation has been implementing these three programs since 2013: “The Academician Shakhmardan Yessenov Scholarship” (176 scholarship holders), “Research Internships in the World’s Laboratories” (more than 100 grant holders have completed internships), and “The English Language Program at Regional Universities” (the fifth university is participating in it). During the program implementation at four Kazakhstani regional universities, more than 1,100 students and employees of higher education institutions in Aktau, Kyzylorda, Karaganda and Petropavlovsk improved their English language level. Our book publishing project is still ongoing. We have already published some of the books on the yessenovfoundation.org website (“Bookshelf” section) for a free download. For example, “Physics in Comics” in Kazakh and Russian has been downloaded almost 14 thousand times, and the chess learning kit – more than 15 and a half thousand times. Our YouTube channel is actively being updated with speeches by experts in various fields, including the young ones. There are already about 180 useful videos where speakers share their experience and life hacks. These are the main projects but that’s not all. So we intend to keep up the good work.

What programs of the Foundation will be continued? What programs will be closed down? What’s new?
Since the Yessenov Foundation is a flexible organization, we have adjusted our plans to meet the changes occurring around us. Due to new opportunities for school and college graduates in Kazakhstan in recent years, we close down the Orleu Program. There will be no any new competitions to be held. However, we undertake to consider grant applications submitted by six current winners of the Program, who have been studying to get a bachelor’s degree due to the Yessenov Foundation grants, so that they can receive higher education. A successful study is the main requirement for them to follow.

The second decision concerns the postponement of the Yessenov Launch Pad Program competition from spring to autumn. We are talking about grants for additional training, and hard and soft skills courses. The competition will be held in September 2025, at the very beginning of the academic year. Why? On the one hand, from March to May we held up to four competitions simultaneously. That was not good either for the effective work of the Foundation or for the candidates who could apply to several programs at once. On the other hand, by the end of summer and at the beginning of autumn the competitors actually come up with their career and education plans, and better understand what skills they have to improve or acquire. The new academic year begins, and the annual program of all educational platforms is approved.

The rest of the programs’ competitions, such as “Research Internships in the World’s Laboratories”, “The Academician Shakhmardan Yessenov Scholarship”, The Yessenov Data Lab (YDL), will be held on the same dates and in the same format. I would like to add that after surveying the YDL participants, we decided to hold a summer school for analysts in a hybrid mode in 2025. The first two weeks will be held online, and the last two weeks will be held offline, in Almaty. The format was welcomed by the contestants and winners of the YDL. As usual, it will be an intensive course taught by the best practitioners – teachers in their fields.

We timely inform about the applications dates and deadlines on our social media: Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. To stay informed, just subscribe and follow our social media accounts. The provisions of all programs are published before the start of accepting applications on our website: yessenovfoundation.org.

Will the English Language Program competition be held in 2025?
No, since it is held every two years. This spring the competition was won by Daulet Serikbayev East Kazakhstan Technical University (EKTU). In the next two years the Program will be implemented at this university by two of our native English speaking teachers and with the assistance of our partners Bonas MacFarlane Kazakhstan. As it was scheduled, 160 students and teachers at EKTU will be able to improve their English language level during this academic year. It is expected to total more than 320 Program beneficiaries. By the way, the 50 best English students (up to 25 people at the end of each academic year) will be able to take IELTS at the expense of the Yessenov Foundation. As a reminder, about a billion people in the world use English as a second language. It is still one of the most widespread languages by number of people who learn it as a foreign language. English is used as a lingua franca in international communication.

We have noticed a new design of the Foundation’s posts and pages on social media…
Yes, we have carried out what is called ‘restyling’ in the language of communication agencies. We are a stable organization and have been on the market for more than 10 years, so the time has come to reflect it in our brand book elements. This is what we decided, and since September we have been updating the entire visual components. We got a new logo which reflects the history of the charity foundation – the initials of the academician Shakhmardan Yesenov in the center of the logo look more modern and stylish. We have refreshed and diversified the color palette. A new font and other elements of style were introduced. The changes on the Foundation’s website yessenovfoundation.org you will see later, since implementation of the new brand book elements is a labor-intensive process. We stay true to ourselves and our mission – to develop intellectual potential in Kazakhstan, and do it in a new style which meets new challenges and shows our programs’ updates. So the Yessenov Foundation brand will shine with new colors in the new season, emphasizing that we have stayed true to ourselves and respond immediately to the changes across the globe.