Pratibha Arora is from New Delhi, India. Her family was very focused on education and she excelled at school and enjoyed it. She graduated in

Joseph DeVeny is from Ohio in the US. Born and raised a Baptist, he had a strict religious childhood, but he reviewed his position as

Alex Teddy is from Oxford, England. He enjoyed his first school – called The Dragon. At 13 he moved to another school which for him was less

Jeff Owings is from Wichita, Kansas. His early schooling was at a Christian non-denominational school, where he generally did well. He went on to study

Alex Shifrin was born in Belarus but grew up in Canada. He studied International Relations with a view to perhaps working as a diplomat. However,

Barry Dazih is from Nigeria, West Africa. While he was a strong student in the sciences, he also had a good singing voice and was

Liz Bagot is from Kansas, America. From a Catholic background herself, her childhood was spent among assorted protestant-derived fundamentalist movements in the Bible Belt. Highly

Dr. Niels Harrit is a scientist and chemist from Copenhagen, Denmark. He has had a long and successful academic career, published more than 60 papers

Marianna Palma is from Latvia. She grew up and was educated during Latvia’s transition from a Soviet state to a free market economy. She learnt

Marja Pylkäs is from Finland. She did well at school and went on to study Russian Language and Culture at university where she also dedicated a year

Daniel Medvedev was born in Moscow but moved to the United States when his parents left the country when he was three. He grew up mainly

Tim Bobak is from Wimbledon, London. After preparatory school, he went to Winchester College where he was exposed to Russian at an early age, and made his