Successful Student: Ilia Itkin
14th August 2008
One of John Ruskin College’s successful students was Ilia Itkin who achieved 2 A’s and a B in Government and Politics, Psychology and Economics. He was born in Russia in 1989 and a few years later his family moved to live in Israel. He found the educational system quite hard there as he had little choice over which subjects he did but in hindsight he felt this was a good thing.
With Hebrew and Russian languages under his belt, he also learnt English whilst in Israel and this stood him in good stead for when he moved to the UK 4 years ago. He attended Torquay Community College where he gained 11 A-C grade GCSE’s.
His mother decided to move to Croydon which brought Ilia to John Ruskin College. “The teaching was so interesting and I have made many friends from different backgrounds”. His advice for others thinking of coming to college is “Commit yourself to your study and you’ll receive the rewards.”
Whilst at John Ruskin College he was nominated for the Best Learner Award not only for being consistently conscientious and hardworking but also for his commitment to learning in the wider sense: he has delivered a presentation to prospective students, given a party political manifesto to year 11 students and also represented the college on a visit to Auschwitz.
Ilia’s has enjoyed moving around. “You get to see a variety of cultures and different aspects of life.” He has a bright future ahead of him; in September he will be going to University College London to study Politics with Eastern European Studies after which he hopes to become a foreign diplomat.