During the five weekends, participants of the Future Leaders Academy had the chance to meet and hear from a wide range of speakers, including the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia Evika Siliņa, the former President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže, the Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, Member of the European Parliament Reinis Pozņaks, President of the Bank of Latvia Mārtiņš Kazāks, Ambassador of Sweden to Latvia Karin Höglund, Vice-Mayor of Riga Linda Ozola, Chief Economist of Swedbank Līva Zorgenfreija, SEB Bank board member Kārlis Danēvičs, SSE Riga professors Morten Hansen and Arnis Sauka, technology sector representatives Vitnija Saldava, Jēkabs Endziņš, Armands Broks, and Artis Krilovs, journalists Jānis Domburs, Ilze Dobele, and Pauls Raudseps, and Presidential candidate and diaspora activist Elīna Pinto.

In addition, participants attended trainings on pitch presentations from Egita Poļanska, argumentation from Mārtiņš Hiršs, storytelling from Dāvis Golds, cryptocurrencies from Kane Baguley, and public speaking from Vanda Dauksta.

Throughout the five weekends, participants also worked in teams of two to identify a problem hindering Latvia’s future development and propose a creative solution. At the end of the programme, they had the opportunity to present their ideas to a jury, and here are the results!

The winning team asked: why can individuals get a day off work in Latvia for donating blood, but not for undergoing annual health check-ups? Kristīne Grīnberga and Līva Vita Kaufmane won first place with their presentation titled “Annual Technical (Health) Check-up,” arguing that Latvia cannot afford to lose anyone from the workforce and that more needs to be done to extend the healthy years of Latvian residents. According to data from the Latvian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Latvia currently loses 1.1 billion euros of GDP annually due to cardiovascular disease and cancer-related early deaths. Līva and Kristīne argued that early detection and screenings, for those over 40, could significantly improve survival chances. To encourage individuals to visit their doctor and undergo screenings, they suggest awarding a day off from work to those who complete their annual check-up. Their rough calculation is that such an initiative would cost approximately 100 million euros annually but would be in the state’s and employers’ interest to have healthy employees and save on future health expenditures.

Second place was awarded to Elizabete Rebezova and Jānis Ieviņš for their idea titled “InvestED Scholarship.” The scholarship would aim to promote financial literacy. Part of the scholarship would need to be invested with the guidance of a mentor, and recipients would be required to return to their schools to teach pupils about the importance of investing and saving for the future on a peer-to-peer basis.

Third place went to Rebeka Laveniece and Domeniks Svikša, who also tackled the topic of financial literacy and the importance of savings as a means of increasing resilience. Their idea, titled “Boosting Financial Literacy in Latvia: Prize-Linked Savings,” would capitalize on the Latvian residents' love of lotteries by promoting savings accounts where a regular deposit is linked with the ability to win a monetary prize.

The President Valdis Zatlers Special Prize for Best Presentation Style was awarded to Elīza Marta Stangaine and Marts Ivaskis.

It has been an incredible time with participants, and we look forward to what the future holds for them!