Ivan Semenenko

Innovations in Science and Technology · Yale Young Global Scholars

Selected for the Yale Young Global Scholars summer programme in Innovations in Science and Technology, a selective residential session at Yale for secondary students drawn from around the world. It was the best two weeks of my education so far, and I have written about why.

The Business of Economics · Rice University

A virtual course made up of taught sections and a capstone project, covering mortgages, the distinction between micro and macroeconomics, and regional economics. It was the first sustained look I had at how wide the subject actually is.

Sixth form · school withheld

Reading Economics, Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Chemistry at A-level. The first three are the reason most of the writing on this site exists.

GCSEs · previous school withheld

Ten GCSEs, predominantly grades 9 and 8, with Russian taken a year early. The full breakdown is available on request.

VRhino, Founder

VR fitness software that makes sport accessible to people the industry has never built for. Live and trading since September 2025. Around £5,000 in annual revenue. Running events for participants directly.

CourtDesk, Founder

AI booking software for padel clubs, and for the questions that arrive with every booking.

BoatXchange, Co-founder

A global resale marketplace for rowing boats, built for a market that has never had one.

Virtual work experience · Stripe

A weekly commitment of four hours of scheduled sessions, plus team work between them, closing with a graded final presentation. The longest and most demanding of the work experience programmes I have done.

Shortlisted, John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2026 · John Locke Institute

Shortlisted in the Economics category, answering the question "Should we fear a cashless society?". The competition is open to students worldwide and draws entries in the thousands, so a place on the shortlist puts an essay in a small fraction of a very large field. The essay is published here in full, with its charts and its references.

Selected for Yale Young Global Scholars 2026 · Yale University

Admitted to the Innovations in Science and Technology session of Yale Young Global Scholars, a selective residential programme at Yale for secondary school students from around the world.

GCSE results · previous school withheld

Ten GCSEs, predominantly grades 9 and 8, with Russian taken a year early. The full breakdown is available on request.

The Legalities of Dictatorship · 8,033 words

How Weimar's own constitution was used to destroy it, 1930 to 1934

Writing and building are the same activity at different distances · 716 words

On why the essays and the companies belong on one site

The Legalities of Creating Your Own Country · 8,879 words

Statehood, secession and sovereignty under international law

The Legalities of New Money · 8,831 words

Regulating blockchain, decentralised finance, and buy now pay later

Two weeks at Yale · 425 words

On Yale Young Global Scholars, and why it was the best fortnight of my education

Should Humanity Fear a Cashless Society? · 1,989 words

Weighing efficiency, transparency and tax revenue against exclusion, predatory lending and the crime that adapts

Innovations in Science and Technology · Yale Young Global Scholars

Residential summer programme at Yale. Skills recorded: leadership and communication.

The Business of Economics · Rice University

Virtual course with a capstone project, covering mortgages, micro and macroeconomics and regional economics. Valid to January 2036.

Virtual Work Experience Programme · Stripe

A sustained programme rather than a short simulation: four hours of scheduled sessions each week, additional team work between them, and a final presentation that was graded.

Two Day Business Work Experience · YP x KPMG

Credential number withheld

Virtual Work Experience · Lloyds Banking Group

Credential number withheld

Finance Exploration: Virtual Work Experience · Investec

Credential number withheld

Barclays LifeSkills · Springpod

Credential number withheld

Barclays: Finance · Springpod

Credential number withheld

Goldman Sachs Operations Job Simulation · Forage

Credential number withheld

Local state primary school, special educational needs · Volunteer

Every Wednesday. I volunteer every Wednesday at local primary schools, and my group and I have focused on a state school for children with special educational needs. The work has taught me patience and resilience, because the children sometimes refuse to listen or to speak to me, and the session has to work anyway. It remains genuinely difficult, and I keep going because I want to be useful to people.

English teaching for Ukrainian refugees · Volunteer teacher

Ongoing, four years. I teach English to Ukrainian refugees in my area who were displaced by the Russian invasion. Beyond the language, the work is helping people adapt to a country they did not choose and find their way into it socially. In the early period my family and I also donated gifts and everyday items. It has taken a great deal of time over four years, and it is the thing on this page I am most glad to have done.

English

Russian

Economics Club

Where most of the arguments that end up as essays get their first hearing, and where they are usually improved by someone disagreeing with them before anything is written down.

Eastern European Society

Two years in a society for Eastern European culture, history and current affairs. Russian is my first language and the region is where my family is from, so the society was partly a way of keeping that connection active rather than letting it become something I used to have.

Chess

Played regularly. The useful habit it teaches is not calculation but the discipline of asking what the other side intends before deciding what you want, which transfers to argument more directly than it has any right to.

Reading in economics

Reading well beyond the syllabus, which is where the essays come from. A syllabus tells you what is settled; the interesting questions are the ones still being argued about, and those are only found by reading further out than you are asked to.

Drums, Grade 5

I practise twice a week for an hour at a time, learning new pieces and working on technique. I am assessed each year to move up a grade.

Football

I train once a week and play a match each week for my local club. It is the part of the week furthest from academic work, and it keeps the rest of it in proportion.