Student wins prestigious Coolidge Scholarship, one of five in the nation

Fox Chapel Area High School 2024-25 junior Ulyana Kubini has been named a winner of the prestigious Coolidge Scholarship. The full-ride presidential scholarship, which covers four years of tuition, room, board and expenses, can be used to pursue undergraduate studies at any accredited college or university program in the United States. Nearly 5,000 students applied and Ulyana is one of only five from throughout the country to be named a Coolidge Scholar in the 2024-25 school year.

Coolidge Scholars embody the principles and legacy of Calvin Coolidge by maintaining exemplary academic performance, exhibiting an interest in public policy and an appreciation of the values President Coolidge championed, and demonstrating humility and performing service to others.

At Fox Chapel Area High School, Ulyana is the vice president and president-elect of the Technology Student Association (TSA) where she competes in data science and analytics, and in an event called “debating technology issues.” She has also participated in the high school’s speech and debate club where she served as the director of speech, and she is also co-president of the science fair club.

Outside of school, Ulyana conducts research in ophthalmic microbiology at the UPMC Vision Institute under Dr. Robert Shanks. She has written articles for numerous economic think tanks on public health and runs an e-commerce company that has onboarded vendors from across the country and abroad. Community service is also important to Ulyana and she is involved with an organization called the Mtindo Network Development Initiative, which is a free market think tank based out of Uganda. The Mtindo Network was founded by Students for Liberty members in Africa and Ulyana serves as Mtindo’s director of international relations. Mtindo has distributed more than 10,000 books across seven countries, partnering with over a dozen leading professors in the United States and the European Union. Ulyana has also volunteered at the Penn Hills Library.

Ulyana wants to study public health, neuroscience or human biology and plans on becoming a doctor.

Coolidge Scholars are ambassadors for the Coolidge Fund and the Coolidge Foundation. Students apply for the scholarship during their junior year. Up to 10 finalists are flown in for a finalist weekend at the Coolidge Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where they interview with the Coolidge Scholars finalist jury. The summer before their senior year, newly-selected Coolidge Scholars spend several orientation days in Plymouth Notch, the birthplace of President Coolidge. While there, they study about President Coolidge and oversee the Coolidge Foundation’s formidable debate programs. While in college, the scholars also return to Plymouth Notch for a week each summer.