Press Centre

Russian Delegation Formed

A commission, consisting of representatives from St. Petersburg State University (SpbSU), the Russian Ministry of Education, and the St. Petersburg City Government, has chosen the winners of the competition for high school students titled “The World through the Eyes of Youth.”

The above competition, organized to select the Russian delegation to the 2007 Junior 8 Summit, took place in April, 2007 in the North West Federal District (NWFD) of Russia. The organizers of this competition intend to annually select members of the Russian delegation from a single federal district (when the G8 Summit does not take place in Russia).

Listed below are the members of the Russian delegation to the 2007 Junior 8 Summit.

1. Margarita Potekhina, Monchegorsk, Murmansk Oblast
2. Valeria Ledkova, Naryan-Mar
3. Olga Peshekhonova, Leningrad Oblast
4. Dimitry Dubovskikh, Leningrad Oblast
5. Ksenia Nikiforova, Novgorod
6. Gleb Nikitin, Pskov
7. Anna Filippova, St. Petersburg
8. Maxim Usinin, Arkhangelsk

To become a member of the Russian delegation to the summit, which will take place in June in the city of Wismar, Germany, was not easy. Before the Competition Commission selected the cream of the crop, the contestants had to take part in a rigorous competition.

During the first stage of the competition, each region of the NWFD selected the high school students who wrote the best essays on a relevant topic for the G8 Summit. The authors of these essays were those who had earlier placed well at school Olympiads.

The competition’s second stage consisted of an oral presentation on the basic thesis of the essay,
an evaluation of each participant’s English language skills, and a group activity. The main goal of the group activity was to write a letter to peers of the group members concerning the problems in their specific region and possible solutions to these problems. The SpbSU Competition Commission evaluated the skills of the contestants in terms of their public speaking ability, level of general knowledge, fluency in speaking English, self-control, communication skills, and their skill at defending their point of view and carrying on a discussion of a topic.

The winners of the competition have the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the announced above selection criteria. However, most important, they have the personal qualities needed to be an effective member of the Russian delegation to the 2007 Junior Summit. These qualities include the ability to: realistically formulate a task and plan the steps to carry it out; work as a constructive team member, assisting others as needed; to take the initiative; and to make constructive decisions with an orientation toward the result.

Before they leave for Germany, all members of the delegation will be invited to take part in a pre-summit training program in St. Petersburg, which will be held from May 6-13, 2007. During this time, they will participate in team building activities, seminars on summit topics, and English lessons. They will also learn about ethics and how to work with the mass media. In addition, they will meet well-known Russian citizens.

Both the winners of the competition and the others who entered “The World through the Eyes of Youth” competition displayed a sincere interest in the development of their regions as well as of the country as a whole. Many of the issues that they discussed turned out to be problems for the NWFD in general. The most pressing problems were that of paying for education and the disparity between their school curriculum and the requirements of the job market. Besides this, in many regions, there is a serious problem regarding the employment of young specialists.

The contestants in the Leningrad Oblast gave particular attention to the demographic situation and while they are not in a position to deal with it at present, they firmly believe that young people need affordable housing.

Those in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad categorically expressed a negative opinion about the sale of tobacco and alcohol. They proposed much more strict limitations in this area than are currently in effect.

In spite of the complexity and difficulty of these problems, nevertheless, the teens showed decisiveness and optimism towards their possible solution. The teens commented, “It’s easy not to listen to talk about these problems, and thus take no action. However, if there are problems in Russia, we must be involved in solving them.