The London Trip 2025 Experience

Between May 19–21 this year, the Aleksander Foundation hosted the fourth edition of its London Trip initiative, bringing 8 bright students to one of the world’s leading business and technology hubs. Over the course of three days, the students embarked on a professional and academic journey across the city.

This year’s group came from diverse academic backgrounds, including Finance, Economics, Political Science, Law, Medicine, Physics, and Computer Science. They also represented a range of higher education institutions - Sofia University, the Medical University, the American University in Bulgaria, and Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Across the three days, the students took part in 8 visits - 5 with corporate partners and 3 with academic institutions. See below for the full schedule and some of the remarkable professionals the students had the chance to meet.

Day 1

We kicked off the trip’s visits at McKinsey & Co’s office where our scholars met with the founder of our organisation and Senior Partner at McKinsey&Co, Alek Petrov, who shared more on his professional and academic journey in life so far, answered all questions the students had, and made sure to inspire them to stay curious and ambitious. Apart from meeting Alek, the students had the opportunity to meet other incredible Bulgarian professionals who work at McKinsey, including Tsveta Damyanova (Associate), Hristo Anastasov (Associate), Eliya Panchova (Analyst), and Vilia Vasileva (Analyst), who answered questions ranging from AI in consulting to practical advice for students interested in the field.

After a lunch with some of the founders and trustees of the foundation, the students went on to their first university visit at the London Business School. There they learned in depth about the Graduate Masters Programmes from the Admissions Team, as well as met with current students and alumni from the MSc in Management programme, including Niya Valentinova, Bilguudee Tuvshintulga, and Eliya Panchova. Our scholars got the chance to ask the LBS Student Ambassadors all about their experience so far, study workload, extracurricular activities, as well as about their personal highlights from their master’s journey so far. The students left inspired by LBS's competitive yet supportive business community.

Day 2

Day 2 continued with two more visits to world-renowned universities. Firstly, we visited Imperial College London’s Business School where we once again learned about the admissions processes, had a campus tour, and met three incredible Student Ambassadors - Philip Caine (MSc Climate Change Management & Finance), Niya Vorapanya (MSc Global Health Management), and Abdulrahman Ahmad (MSc Fin. Technology). Imperial’s unique blend of business, science, and technology left a strong impression on the group.

Next, we visited Capital Group, where the students met one of our long-time foundation supporter and alumnus Iliya Tsekov, now a Fixed Income Investment Analyst. We gained valuable insights from his industry experience, learned what a typical day in his role looks like, and explored topics such as whether the US dollar is losing its power in the current economic and political landscape, how valuable a CFA certification is, and the pros and cons of MBA vs MSc.

We wrapped up the day at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where the Admissions Team walked us through their graduate programs and Summer School opportunities. In fact, the Aleksander Foundation has proudly run the LSE Summer School Scholarship Competition for over 17 years now. You can explore stories and insights from our past scholarship recipients here - and be sure to watch for the upcoming application cycle for LSE Summer School 2026 Scholarships.

Day 3

On our last day, we firstly visited the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where Ruslan Shopov, a Principal Banker on the Real Estate Investment Team, and colleagues, introduced us to the incredible work EBRD does, and shared a few case studies specifically on real estate projects they have worked on, and the aftermath of their investments across different levels and factors like affordability, green buildings and climate change, and social development.

Afterwards we immersed ourselves in the more tech-focused world, by firstly visiting Microsoft’s office and Maria Kaneva, who is a Senior Account Manager. We dived more into personal development and lessons on how to achieve your goals, while also keeping in mind some of Microsoft’s core values - Respect, Integrity, and Accountability. The students took away many learnings, including tangible advice on what potential courses they can pursue to kick off or enhance further their Data Analytics, Data Science, or Engineering careers.

Lastly, we had the opportunity to meet Alexander Parunov, a Machine Learning Engineer at Meta, who spoke in depth with our mathematics, computer science, and physics students about how he kick-started his career, lessons from the startup world and some of his past projects, and his current role at Meta. He encouraged the students to build practical projects regularly - even simple apps like movie or book rating systems -to continuously sharpen their skills and stay ahead of the curve.

Final notes

In summary, this year’s trip offered a rich mix of professional, academic, and personal development. We’ll soon be sharing firsthand reflections from the students themselves.

We’re deeply grateful to all our partners, companies, and institutions for making this experience possible. Together, we hope to continue creating life-changing opportunities for the future generations of Bulgarian students and those studying at Bulgarian higher education institutions.