Viktor Tsvetanov

Like many student leaders, 18-year-old Viktor’s route to volunteering and civic activism grew out of the practical subjects he learned at school. As a young teenager at McGahan Vocational High School, Viktor began studying Forwarding, Transport and Warehousing Logistics. Having caught an interest in the subject, he started to actively follow the development of the sector, studying the different modalities of transport and their technical details. Soon he became Manager of the school's training company, MacGahan Transport Logistic – a position he held from 2019 to 2022. During this four-year-long training programme, Viktor had the opportunity to work with large teams from each year group in school, and he was able to involve other young people in entrepreneurship, giving them guidance on how they could put their ideas into practice.  

This positive experience of mentoring ultimately led Viktor into a wider practice of volunteering. In 2020, influenced by the pandemic situation and the desire to help people – as well as the increased civic activism among his classmates – he established a Bulgarian Red Cross Youth club in his school and was elected as its Coordinator. As a result of the knowledge he acquired, he began to give First Aid and Safety presentations at his own school as well as others in the capital and the surrounding villages. Today, Viktor is a member of the Executive Board of the Bulgarian Red Cross Youth and Coordinator of its Sofia branch. He also works with Junior Achievement Bulgaria as National Coordinator of its alumni network (JA Alumni Bulgaria) and in the Sofia Student Council as a member of the Supervisory Board.  

Viktor’s achievements have been recognised far and wide. Due to his excellence in multiple areas, the Ministry of Education and Science awarded him a National Scholarship for Children with Outstanding Abilities. In connection with his active volunteering, he was additionally awarded the National Volunteering Award by the Ministry of Youth and Sport in 2023, and the National Youth Volunteering Award from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and Wikipedia. Viktor has also progressed professionally, and in September 2022, as consequence of his interest in the logistics field and the knowledge and skills he has acquired, he was selected for an apprenticeship as Airfreight Forwarder with Nippon Express Group (one of the five largest airfreight forwarding companies in the world).  

If Viktor wins the Global Student Prize, one of his main goals is to help build Bulgaria’s first children's hospital – something for which there is a great need. In addition, some of the prize funds will be invested in the expansion of programmes for inclusion and multidisciplinary training of students from smaller towns and villages, who often miss out on tools and programmes that are mainly implemented in the larger cities. Finally, Viktor would also devote funds to scholarships for young people of outstanding achievement to help them continue their education without the pressures of poverty.