YESSENOV FOUNDATION SPONSORS KAZAKHSTAN TEAM AT IESO 2024

– Colleagues from the “Zhas Geolog” Foundation (this is the organizer of the national selection for the Olympics) have contacted us with an offer to sponsor the participation of the Kazakh team in the IESO. The team consists of four schoolchildren and two accompanying adults. Following the negotiations, the founder of our foundation Galimzhan Yessenov decided to finance the team, and we signed an agreement, taking over the financing of Kazakhstan’s participation in the Olympics. Thus, the Yessenov Foundation is responsible for the registration fee, which is paid by each participating country, travel, stay and meals of the team, as well as pays for the uniform of the participants (ceremonial and casual). Yessenov Foundation project coordinator Aigerim Sultan is closely monitoring the selection process, and she will take part in the final, which will be held online. She also will attend the Olympiad in China, – said Aiganym Malisheva, Executive director of the Scientific and Educational Foundation named after academician Shakhmardan Yessenov.

The final selection for the national team of Kazakhstan for IESO 2024 will be held on February 7, at the same time the names of four members of the national team, which will travel to China in the summer, will be announced. The international Olympiad in such disciplines as geology, meteorology, environmental science and astronomy is attended annually by approx. 200 schoolchildren from more than 40 countries of the world. In 2020, due to the Covid pandemic, IESO was not held, and in 2021-2023, an international competition for high school students interested in Earth sciences was held online.

In 2017-2019, the Yessenov Foundation has already sponsored a team of Kazakhstani high school students at the IESO. From the Olympics held in France, Korea and Thailand, our young fellow citizens returned home with more than 10 medals. The predecessor of the Olympiad was the Korean Earth Science Olympiad initiated by Korean scientists, held in 2003. In 2007, the IESO was also held in Korea for the first time.

The “Zhas Geolog” Foundation supports the geological industry in Kazakhstan through holding events with the participation of young geologists and veterans of the field, as well as financing the training of citizens of the country in geological specialties. This foundation organizes the annual republican open field Olympiad for young geologists and selects the national team to participate in the IESO.

The mission of the Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundation is to develop the intellectual potential of the country. The foundation implements its mission through specialized scientific and educational programs – scientific internships, Yessenov scholarships, English language program, summer school for data analysts Yessenov Data Lab, etc. Over the 10-year history of the foundation, more than 27 thousand people have benefited directly (or indirectly) from the non-profit organization.