On September 11, an exhibition of photos taken by students of SUSU international summer schools, arranged by the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications and the Institute of Architecture and Construction under active support of the Extracurricular Activities Department, has opened on the 3rd floor of the SUSU main building. The title of the exhibition (“Chelyabinsk: The Colors of East and West”) reflects demography of the exhibited items: there are photos taken by German students majoring in engineering from the city of Freiberg as well as photos by students majoring in design from the Indian city of Chennai.
Photo exhibition opened with dance performances by Indian students. They performed both contemporary and national dances. Director of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications Elena Yaroslavova congratulated attendees of summer schools on opening of the exhibition.
“This year, SUSU simultaneously welcomes students from Germany and India. These students are very different but they get united with talent, passion for the undiscovered, and the desire to live an eventful life by opening new horizons and sharing their own experience. The exhibition, conceptually arranged with regards to certain topics, is of cultural nature, which is unsurprising as SUSU stands on the border of Europe and Asia because Chelyabinsk is the place which connects the two continents. In the picture, you can see contiguity of two cultures through the eyes of our international guests. This is even more so as part of the photos presented at the exhibition are dedicated to Chelyabinsk, and another part is the cities which students came from.”
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Director of the Institute of Architecture and Construction, Dmitrii Ulrikh, expressed the hope for further fruitful cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture of the M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute in India, the first result of which was the summer school of architecture and design. Whereas partnership between the Freiberg Mining Academy (Germany) and SUSU has been implementing in various formats for over 10 years, the summer school for Indian students has been arranged for the first time. It has become an excellent experience for both international and SUSU students. Maria Fedorova, lecturer at the Department of Design and Visual Arts, told us about the way in which students from India spend their time:
“Students listen to theoretical information very attentively, ask questions and get into specifics. They are amazing students because they are very industrious and active: they love taking part in practical classes, team up with Russian students, make mockups, glue them together and paint them. There are true professionals among them, and there is constant exchange of ideas between Indian and Russian students. We like the fact that international students are involved in the process. For SUSU, this is the first suchlike partnership with an Indian university, but we hope that the summer school will leave only positive emotions, and more students are to come to our university.”
“Over the time of summer schools, the Department of Design and Visual Arts and the Department of Building Materials and Products have worked fruitfully with international students. Let us hope that the time that students from India spent at our university was useful for them: they got familiar with our culture and with the university, and I hope they liked everything,” said Sergey Pogorelov, lecturer at the Department of Building Materials and Products.
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The summer school lasted for 3 weeks. Over this time, students from India managed to cheer for the Traktor ice hockey team, watch ASU Junior Grand Prix of figure skating, visit several museums, master Argentinian tango, visit the Shooting Club and even grant several television interviews. Supervisor of the Indian students’ group, Associate Professor at the partner M.G.R. University, Mookambika Amudha Baskaran, shared her emotions:
“We are very happy to be here at SUSU. We came to an amazing university, went on excursions, saw interesting places, got familiar with the Faculty. It was inspiring. To some extent, the photo exhibition is one of the key milestones of our summer school, some kind of reconsideration of the acquired experience. The most important thing that I would like to notice is the balance between extracurricular activities and studying. A bit of studying, a bit of leisure makes the study process to be exciting.”
International summer schools at SUSU have become traditional and are annually arranged at the university by the Centre for International Education of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications. For international students, it is not just a very efficient way to acquire new knowledge and learn Russian language, but also an excellent opportunity to learn more about the culture of our country, get engaged into the studied language environment, make new friends and get unforgettable emotions.