The students of the humanitarian and natural faculties and colleges of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv took part in the I stage of the XVII International competition in the Ukrainian language named after Petro Yatsyk held on November 24, 2016.
This competition was initiated by a well-known businessman from Canada, a philanthropist and Ukrainian Patriot Petro Yatsyk (1921-2001); it aims at strengthening the state status of the Ukrainian language and its prestige among young people, cultivating a respect for the culture and traditions of the Ukrainian people.
The idea of holding the competition of the Ukrainian language experts suggested by Petro Yatsyk was supported by the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists – the association of business representatives from a lot of countries of the world. They provided sponsorship support for holding the competition and funds for awarding its winners.
Petro Yatsyk made an important contribution to the financing of the competition. He assigned a significant amount of money to implement various scientific and cultural projects of the Ukrainian diaspora from the late 50’s. In particular, the Canadian of the Ukrainian origin became the first philanthropist of the multivolume “Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies” published in the postwar years. The most prominent project financed by him is the English-speaking edition of the monumental work “History of Ukraine-Rus”.
We can remind that the competition is traditionally held in four stages according to the Olympiad system: school, district, regional and all-Ukrainian levels. The first International competition of the Ukrainian language experts took place in 2000. According to the resolution of the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists the competition was given a name of Petro Yatsyk.