The II International Summer School – the Ukrainian part completed, the Polish part starts

 

 

Everyone who was at least partially involved in the process of preparing, implementing or participating in the summer school this year, could not but feel the frenetic pace and the swirl of events that accompanied it. So, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for the coordinated work of all departments and services of the university that provided the organizers and participants of the summer school with academic, technical and documentary assistance and support. To begin with, the cafeteria workers greeted the Polish participants with a smile and offered delicious dinners; friendly stuff of dormitories №12 and 9 provided the participants from abroad with comfortable accommodation; polite drivers from the university transport service were never late with buses for trips and field studies; the department for international activities prepared all orders, instructions and documents in time – their work is unnoticed but really important when receiving foreign participants. Our special gratitude to Professor Sergiy Zibtsev, director of the Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture Petro Lakyda, director of Boyarka forest research station Anatoliy Karpuk for organizing a special day in the summer school program devoted to theoretical and practical aspects of the timber industry in sustainable development.

 

And then - the daily activities started with the academic English language with double-tutoring (sessions were held by two teachers simultaneously - Liudmyla Dankevych from NULESU and Zofia Prele from the foreign language department of WULESU).

 

 

 

 

The session program included writing abstracts of scientific articles, scientific foundations of clear communication, especially presentation of research projects and research results.

The next part - theoretical lectures and workshops given by lecturers from Poland and Ukraine. Among them the director of the Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture Professor Petro Lakyda, Professor Vasyl Yukhnovskyi, associate Professor Pavlo Kravets and Anatoliy Kushnir, who presented a palette of research carried out at the Institute related to sustainable development and life safety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to see the practical operation of the structural units of the Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, the participants of the summer school went on guided trips to university botanical garden and the Boyarka forest research station.

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the rainy weather on that day prevented us from enjoying the flora and fauna of the forest, but "there is no evil without good" - participants of the summer school had more time to study the modern renovated and well equipped classrooms, experimental work of the laboratory in-vitro, operation of forest fire station with high-precision digital system for early detection of fires and quadrocopter (drones) to develop a strategy of extinguishing forest fires on the spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Director of Boyarka forest research station Anatoliy Karpuk and Director of the Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture Petro Lakyda introduced us to the history of this subdivision, scientific achievements and challenges to be solved. There was a lively discussion with many questions and comments from the participants of the Summer School.

 

 

 

 

 

In spite of the rain, the university bus took the participants to the ornithological reserve where the rangers Roman Sova and Maksym Shestak showed us the tops of 187-year-old pine-trees (the age was calculated with the help of the special high precision devices!) with large nests of wild grey herons.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 – theoretical studies in the morning according to the schedule.

 

Then 100 km field trip to Zgurivka, Kyiv region. We visited the farm "Tetiana 2011" (reference: Vasyl Tsvyk, the owner and member of the board of employers of the Institute of Postgraduate Education. He was among the first business people who willingly agreed to host participants of the international summer school).

 

 

 

 

And here we are - the farm stretches for three villages, the total area - 2500 ha, the main source of revenue is crop production - wheat, soy, sunflower, corn, sugar beets. In addition, potatoes and other vegetable crops. But the innovative project and a real hobby for the owner and his employers are .... goats! And just in order to see the operation of high performance farm with almost 300 French pedigree goats, we have covered quite a long distance. Obviously, this visit surpassed all our hopes and expectations.

 

 

The construction of goat complex began a year ago and we witnessed how the workers completed the approaches to the milk processing plant for 7,000 liters of milk per day to produce dairy products and French cheeses, completion of the interior and installing production lines. And all this on a private farm!

 

 

Separate facilities for dairy goats (Reference: 1 goat gives 4,8 l of milk per day!) and calves. Milking is fully automated with the help of De-Laval milking machines. There is a specially designed feeding rations in clean rooms with adjustable ventilation and temperature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the happy flock of goats we imagined that we are on a farm in the French region Niort, from which the family line of goats was purchased. 

 

 

To convince the guests that the products are delicious, and to overcome stereotypes about the presence of peculiar smell in the goat dairy products, Vasyl Tsvyk and his assistant prepared a surprise for us - tasting experimental products, which will appear on the shelves of supermarkets "Silpo" and "Novus" under trademark Zinka on 1 August 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The participants of the summer school relished the taste of goat milk with fat content 1.5%, 2.6% and 3.2%, yogurt and bifid yogurt and even white cheese with exceptionally rich pleasant taste. There is no need to explain the benefits of goat milk and its nutritional benefits. 

 

 

Mr. Vasyl as a true enthusiast and owner of the business (it is a kind of people what we are looking for cooperation with) could spend hours talking about his pets, the production stages and plans for the near future.

 

 

He sincerely suggested holding the next summer school on the basis of his farm. He plans to build elegant wooden chalets with all amenities for guests and visitors who wish to enjoy the rural nature, the taste of fresh goat milk products and just caress goats.

 

He also drew up prospects of cooperation with the farm "Tetiana 2011" on the bases of his research and practical center for the double degree training program with WULESU. Vasyl Tsvyk has already offered internship in his diversified farm for Ukrainian and foreign undergraduate and graduate students. It is important that students-trainees will perform real industrial tasks, study the processes and receive 80% of the wages of farm employees. But most importantly, young people learn farm management, gain valuable experience and understand that it is not necessary to look for earnings on foreign strawberries. It is much cheaper and has more prospects for our students to acquire skills in Ukrainian farms. It all depends on the young people’s outlook and their proactive lifestyle. You can learn all these skills from the owner, who found time in his busy schedule to communicate with us. "Do what others do not want to do today, and tomorrow you will live like others cannot" – these words said by Vasyl clearly confirm our conclusion.

 

At the end of our visit we had lunch at a local restaurant (reference: the territory of 3 villages there are 2 restaurants with authentic, elegant design in the national Ukrainian style, with delicious traditional Ukrainian cuisine). When we asked Mr. Tsvyk “Who are the restaurants in the village for”, he said: "The guy who spends most of his life doing routine rural work, should have an opportunity to invite a girl for dinner. Then we can say that we guarantee realization of the 3 components of sustainable development: environmental, economic and social component".

 

 

Saturday was the last day of the Ukrainian part of the program. Working on team projects, a lecture on "Trends in the human diet."

 

And the last event in the Ukrainian part of the program was the boat trip on the Dnipro river which made our foreign guests see how beautiful and magnificent our ancient city is with its picturesque landscape. Thanks to their close cooperation the participants of Summer School developed friendly relationships, brainstormed ideas for group projects and were ready to implement them during the Polish part of the program.