Back in spring, Le Sallay International announced a full scholarship for children who love history. After receiving and examining lots and lots of applications, we are now ready to unveil the winner: it is Maria Kamenshchikova. Maria is 14, her family had been living in Scotland for a while where the girl attended Gordonstoun school where three generations of British royalty were educated at. She later had to move to Saratov, Russia, with her mother and little sister for family reasons, and she is currently studying remotely at a private school. Maria is bilingual, she is attending an architecture school, taking an academic writing course at Letovo school, and giving private English lessons to teenagers.

Here’s what Le Sallay’s educator Pyotr Mazaev has to say about Maria: ‘Maria is an eloquent speaker, her English is great, she is very precocious. She does love history, but it’s far from her only pursuit – she also loves painting and writing, she studied creative writing in Scotland, and she likes writing science fiction stories, ‘the scary kind’. She likes Stephen King and Mariam Petrosyan, and cites A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman as her favorite book. She doesn’t like movie adaptations (‘These ruin my own imagery’), but she does watch TV shows like BBC’s Sherlock.

Maria says she is a ‘quiet and soft’ person. When communicating with her online friends (she hasn’t had the time to make any acquaintances after moving to her new home), she likes discussing books, music, and movies.’

Here’s what Maria’s mother Ekaterina wrote in her application: ‘My daughter is a very creative person who adores the English language, she is very reliable, and she loves her studies. She used to study at Gordonstoun, but we had to return to Russia, and she just couldn’t fit in at a regular school: even when studying at home, she finds it very difficult to work with standard Russian textbooks and tests, the system and the curriculum are simply too different. Besides, since she studies at home, Maria has almost no communication with teenagers her age which is unfortunate. We would really like to find a way for her to be happy at school, to find new friends, and to like her studies as she used to like them back in Scotland.’

Maria Kamenshchikova: ‘I am eager to be able to study among friends, get new experience, and enjoy my studies.’

We are sure all Maria’s wishes will come true, as will her mother’s - because our school is exactly what she needs!