WINTER: WE GOT THROUGH!
In December we awarded the winners and participants of #STUDYINRUSSIA — #STUDYINSIBFU instagram competition organized by Siberian Federal University and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. SibFU students from Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, India, Thailand, Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire took part in the competition, posting numerous photos and stories about their experience of living here and studying in our University to their Instagram-accounts. Three finalists (student of ISI SFU from Kyrgyzstan, Kamila Satarova; listener of Russian language courses from Ghana, Rowland Adutvum; graduate student from India, Kuntak Dutta) were then chosen by the International department, and from there the places were allocated by a poll on University's social media. All participants and winners of the contest received valuable prizes from the University and an invitation to participate in a professional photo shoot.
There are hundreds of international students studying in SibFU. We interact with them and help them every day, and it’s important for us to see university life through their eyes — to know more about their classes, new international and Russian friends, and to hear their stories. We had an opportunity to get to know our students better, and we believe this competition gave them a chance to become more involved with our international community, which gets bigger and more diverse every year.
In January we held a #FrozenSibFU flashmob during the Epiphany frosts. Foreign students shared their experience of getting through a real Siberian winter: they published survival advice for future students and posted photos with their eyelashes covered in icicles during the most ferocious cold weather. As a result of the contest, Krasnoyarsk’s publication “Prospekt Mira” published an article about our foreign students and employees.
On February 14, we held a "Love Letters" workshop on calligraphy dedicated to St. Valentine's day. University employees Dila Lee and Ahmad Alkhalaf Alali spoke about the history and development of East Asian and Arabic calligraphy systems; together with the teacher of the SibFU’s Japanese Center, Yamato Seo, and the student from Iraq, Al-Hussein Al-Darraji, the guests tried their hand at writing their names and beautiful words of love in several languages.
On February 23 we took a small group of the most courageous international students to Stolbi. Despite some challenges (many students are not used to spending so much time in the snowy outdoors, some still forget that one really should wear warm boots in February), the trip was a success and we managed to cover a lot of territory during the 5-hour hike.
In the spring we will definitely continue to organize events that involve SibFU’s international community. Look out for the upcoming Mehndi Contest, that we are coordinating with a help from our staff and students from India. Those wishing to participate as a model or a contestant need to register.For information about the competition and other events keep an eye on our "International Support SibFU" VK-page.
Ekaterina Rudaia, Deputy head of the International Support.