STUDENTS AFTER VISITING THE INDEPENDENCE: THE MOST INTERESTING EXCURSION OVER 12 YEARS

Students of the twelfth grade of Siesikai Gymnasium visited the vessel, the length of which is equal to 3 football grounds, and to feed the containers of which with water 39 Olympic pools are required. This vessel is the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal Independence. High school students received a very rare opportunity to visit the vessel after having won the first place in the video competition “Independence: why energy independence is important for me” organised by AB Klaipėdos nafta.     
 
Students, who had arrived to Klaipėda, found many interesting facts about the LNG terminal, and also had the opportunity to listen to Mindaugas Jusius presenting the company’s activities and professions, which are in high demand in the company. During the excursion on the vessel, the students were introduced to the process of loading of LNG to the terminal. They also could see where and how works on the vessel are performed, visit the deck of the vessel Independence and even sit in the seat of the captain.

When sharing their impressions after the visit, the students noted that it has been one of the most interesting excursions over their 12 years’ study period.

“I was impressed by the work of the crew of Independence. Although, there are no Lithuanian employees working on the ship yet, I would like to work there in the future,” Žaneta Jakučiūnaitė shared her impressions after the excursion.

Her twin sister Odeta added: “I am very glad we have won this competition. I hoped the excursion will be interesting, but I did not expect it will leave me with so many impressions! I will never forget this excursion!”

Liveta Grybovaitė was surprised by the friendly and warm receipt and communication of KN employees. “I still cannot believe that we shared the table with the CEO of “Klaipėdos nafta”.

And Rokas Stankevičius claimed to have got the answer to the question he had long been concerned with: “I have always wanted to find out why the LNG terminal was built as a vessel instead of constructing a building in the quay. I finally got the answer to this question during this excursion.”

In the KN competition organised for students of 11-12 forms, the students of Siesikų high school of Ukmergė Disrtict won with their video “Independence jėga!” (Independence is cool!). The jury evaluated it with 96 points on a scale from 1 to 100.

According to Rasa Kuliavaitė, the Lithuanian language teacher supervising the team, it is not the first time her students have been participating in the video competition: “They like filming, editing, creating. The students have participated in many competitions, yet they usually were the second or the third. This time they started their creative work immediately after I presented the topic sent by the team of Klaipėdos nafta. The students remembered the importance of “Independence” and discussed the fact that it would be very risky and even dangerous for the country to depend on Gazprom.

According to the teacher, the twin sisters studying in the class mentioned that even close people quarrel, therefore, it is very important to be independent. “This is how the main idea of the video, i.e. to convey the idea of the energy freedom through depiction of the daily routine of the twin sisters, emerged,” Rasa Kuliavaitė told about the implementation of the idea.

The second place in the competition went to the 11th form students of Akademija High School of Kėdainiai District (82 points), the third place to the 11th form students from Šilūtė Vydūnas High School (81 points).

All employees of KN had the opportunity to choose the most appealing video. Most of their sympathies went to the work of the 11th form students of Akademija High School of Kėdainiai District, thus this team will receive a special prize – a souvenir model of the Independence.
All the prize winners received memory bracelets with the competition mark Independence.

The prize-winning videos are available here: