Taking responsibility and inspiring others: the story of a graduate of the Aspen Teens: Fight for UA Dream Programm

Completing an Aspen seminar often marks not the end but the beginning of a journey. Participants return with new perspectives, learning to view familiar issues from different angles and to value diversity as a source of strength and motivation for change. What comes next? One path is to expand this experience within one’s teams, communities, or professional field. Participants in our teen seminars also share this aspiration.

Last year, high school student Maria participated in the “Aspen Teens: Fight for UA Dream. Leadership in Times of War” seminar in Austria, which was organized by the Aspen Institute Kyiv in partnership with the Klitschko Foundation. Inspired by this experience, earlier this year, Mariia organized a moderated dialogue in Rivne focused on youth leadership. The event brought together 20 students from the 10th and 11th grades.

Not only learning, but also sharing knowledge: the seminar as motivation for change

Maria describes the Aspen Teens seminar as a turning point. It helped her realize that she wanted to learn and pass on knowledge. She was later elected president of her high school and initiated several projects. One of them was the leadership-focused dialogue, conducted as part of her academic research project, “Developing Leadership Competencies in Secondary School Students.”

“I was looking for new approaches to developing leadership among teenagers — something deeper than typical lectures or brainstorming sessions. That’s when the idea for a moderated dialogue inspired by the Aspen Institute Kyiv format was born. It was the first event of this kind for our school,” Maria shares.

Taras Komarenko, the “Values and Society” seminar alumni and founder of the Smart People business school, moderated the dialogue. 

Participants explored what it means to be a leader, the scope of a leader’s responsibility, and the role of young people in today’s world. For many, it was an opportunity to rethink their approach to leadership and draw inspiration from their peers.

Teenagers Can Impact Not Only Themselves, but Their Communities and Country

At the end of the seminar, each student was asked to describe leadership in one word. Their answers included service, potential, connection, people, and system. While views varied, one point was clear: leadership matters — especially in wartime — and youth leadership does too.

“Society needs leaders — people who take responsibility and show the way. I also think teenagers must realize that they are the main authors of their own lives. They don’t just impact themselves; they influence their environment and even the country,” Maria concludes.

Dialogue leads to ideas, and ideas lead to action. Maria’s example proves it.

The Aspen Institute Kyiv implements the “Aspen Teens: Fight for UA Dream” project in partnership with the Klitschko Foundation.