Have you ever wondered what happens when creativity meets code?
Sometimes, passion begins as a game.
For Tikhon, it started with a few colorful blocks on a screen, those of Scratch, the platform where he built his very first programs as a child. From there, the step into the world of coding felt natural, maybe even inevitable.
Born in Moscow and raised across several countries, from Russia to Cyprus, then Slovenia, and finally Italy, Tikhon learned early on how to adapt, observe, and understand.
“At first, I didn’t know the language or the culture,” he recalls. “But I learned by living, talking to people, and immersing myself in what was around me.”
Perhaps that’s why he found comfort in the language of computers, a universal code that transcends borders, blending logic and creativity.
When he arrived at H-FARM International School for the Diploma Programme, he found an environment where his curiosities were not only welcomed, but transformed into real opportunities.
“Here you can choose what to study, dive deeper into what you truly love,” he explains. “And teachers aren’t just there to teach, they’re there to help you grow.”
It was thanks to the support of his teachers that he took part in his first NASA Hackathon, together with his brother and a few friends.
Then came the Olympiads, a competitive coding challenge in which the school actively encourages and prepares its most motivated students. A journey that led Tikhon all the way to a bronze medal.
Mr. Mahmoud, CS Teacher
“When I heard that Tikhon had won a bronze medal in the CS Olympiad, I was just so incredibly happy and proud. It’s a huge deal! this is a really tough competition, and it’s a phenomenal achievement.”
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Behind that result lies countless hours of dedication and many late nights spent staring at a screen, trying to find the right solution to problems that seemed unsolvable.
“Sometimes I’d open an exercise and have no idea where to start,” he says. “But every mistake was progress. I’d look at the solutions, try to understand them, learn a new algorithm. Little by little, I learned how to truly problem-solve.”
It’s exactly this mindset that his teacher has always noticed in him:
“What I’ve always seen in Tikhon is this amazing spark of curiosity. He just loves to learn and to solve puzzles. He’s the kind of student who dives into a problem not because it’s an assignment, but because he genuinely wants to figure it out.”
Determination, passion, and collaboration, those, he says, are the three words that got him there.
Because even if the Olympiad is an individual competition, behind every achievement there is a community that supports you: teachers who guide you, classmates who share challenges and insights, and a family that believes in and supports your talent.
Tikhon, DP Student
“When you have people around you who believe in you, you can go further than you ever thought possible.”
Today, Tikhon continues to explore new horizons in the tech world, from artificial intelligence to robotics, with the same curiosity he had as a child creating animations on Scratch.
For him, every problem is an adventure, every line of code a new possibility.
“What I love about coding,” he says, “is that there’s never just one right answer. It’s a constant process of discovery. And when you finally solve a problem you’ve been working on for hours, it feels like you’ve uncovered something extraordinary.”
His next goal? To keep improving, compete again in the Olympiads, and continue writing, one line of code at a time, his own future.
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