On April 7th an event was held at the Lesnaya Zastava countryside complex in honour of the anniversary of the establishment of the Kurchatov Centre for the Identification, Support, and Development of Abilities and Talents among Children and Youth of the Chelyabinsk Region. Guests included representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Chelyabinsk Region, members of the Board of Trustees and Expert Council, and the Centre's partners and teachers.
The Regional Centre was established on April 7, 2020 through an agreement between the Chelyabinsk Regional Government and the "Talent and Success" Educational Foundation. In this period, the Centre has fulfilled 52 educational programs and held 34 regional events, which were attended by more than 11 thousand schoolchildren of the Chelyabinsk Region.
Elena Tiurina, representative of the founder, Head of the General Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Chelyabinsk Region, congratulated the Kurchatov Centre:
"May the inspiring environment that we create contribute to the development of talented children, their successes and victories. I would like to wish that the Chelyabinsk Region always remains a region of gifted children and looks to the future with prospects for their development."
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The Kurchatov Centre operates at the Chelyabinsk Regional Multi-Profile Boarding-School Lyceum for Gifted Children—an educational institution with extensive experience in working with talented children. Director of the Institution Irina Ruzaeva noted that the creation of the regional Centre is an interesting project, which provides a new impetus to the work of the regional lyceum.
"The lyceum team is proud to be involved in the creation of the regional Centre. We know how difficult it is to deal with "gifted children", and we are very happy that we can bring something new to the development of this system," said Irina Ruzaeva.
Combining resources with partners offers great opportunities to support talented children. One of the important tasks of the Kurchatov Centre is to expand its boundaries of cooperation. The partners of the Centre already include Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture, Chelyabinsk Regional Chess Federation, the "Hockey Federation" Chelyabinsk Regional Public Organisation, and others.
One of its industrial partners—the Magnezit Group— has supported the Kurchatov Centre from the very beginning of its activity.
"It is important to provide timely support to talented children for them to stay in the Chelyabinsk Region in the future and take part in the development of the region. We have many partners and friends. Magnezit and the Sobranie Foundation successfully cooperate with the GITIS Russian Institute of Theatre Arts, the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design and Applied Arts, the Higher School of Economics, and other institutions. And we are ready to work with the Kurchatov Centre to fulfil joint educational programs", said Director of the Representative Office of Magnezit Group in Chelyabinsk Evgeny Andreev.
An important area of the organisation's work are project activities. Last year the "Sirius. Start Your Own Project" project session was launched. The essence of the program is to attract industrial and scientific partners to set project tasks for students. South Ural State University was the first such partner. Under the guidance of the academic staff and students of the university, students designed their own inventions.
"Project work with schoolchildren was an interesting experience for our university. We managed to build a new mental model of interaction between the university and regional enterprises to formulate project tasks for schoolchildren," said Marina Potapova, Head of the Kurchatov Centre Expert Council, Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of SUSU. "I wish further prosperity, and more new interesting projects and events to the Kurchatov Centre. I would like to say that we are not only partners but also like-minded people."
Establishment of the regional Centre for the support of gifted children is of great importance for the entire Chelyabinsk Region, because talented young people are the most important factor and resource for the development of the region in the future.