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For third year already Vytautas Zemkalnis High School held a ceremony presenting school's students and teacher with the special awards. The Kazickas Family Foundation established such awards to honor Alexandra Kalvenas-Kazickas (1920-2011) memory. School Lithuanian language and literatue teacher Rasa Majauskiene shares few highlights of the event:
"The Kazickas Family Foundation and Vytautas Zemkalnis school has a beautiful friendship. Alexandra Kalvenas-Kazickas (1920-2011) was from Panevezys and graduated from Panevezys High School for Girls (currently Vytautas Zemkalnis High School) in 1937. She kept visiting the school throughout the years and in 2001 set up a cozy library in school’s attic which now is one of the most visited areas of the building. In 2018 the Kazickas Family Foundation established the awards for students and teachers to honor Alexandra Kalvenas-Kazickas (1920-2011) and her dear husband Joseph Kazickas (2018-2014) memory.
The pandemic corrected the course of the school's plans this year, so it was decided to award the students in the following categories: Academic Accomplishments, Visual Arts and “What Is Important to Me.” In order to participate, students had to raise personal annual goals, evaluate his/her accomplishments by the end of the school year, provide their activity reports and present two essays. The first one “My Accomplishments and Contributions to My School and Town Community" was mandatory, while the second one could be either “If You had an Opportunity to Have a Cup of Tea with Mrs. Kazickas, What Would You Share and Ask Her?" or "What Does It Mean to Me to Be a Memeber of the Alexandra Kazickas Club?". At the meantime, school teachers were invited to submit their work description and teaching philosophy for the Teacher of the Year award. With this award Jurate Kazickas and the entire Kazickas family seek to share the work of the Kazickas family and motivate the most talented, active and promising young students.
On June 23, 2021 we met our guests at the Vytautas Zemkalnis School Green Square. KFF Vilnius office director Agne Vertelkaite arrived with Alexandra and Joseph Kazickas' grandson Peter Kazickas and his girlfirend Aluna Yacoe who were visiting from the US.
The recipients of the Alexandra Kalvenas-Kazickas 2021 awards were:
- Academic Accomplishments – Gabija Abraskeviciute
- Visual Arts - Greta Remeikaite
- "What Is Important to Me" - Rugilė Psibisauskaite
The “Teacher of the Year” award this year was presented to art teacher Ilona Zvinakiene.
Peter Kazickas also introduced a new program Uncommon.lt that seeks to empower low-income community members with the technology education.
These awards not just celebrate students‘ and teachers‘ achievements, but also empower the recipients to take responsibility for the future of their school, town and Lithuania. We hope this friendship will last for a long time and encourage young people to search, try and discover."