Press Centre

The Best Pupils in the Siberian Federal District to be chosen J8 delegates

The Best Pupils in the Siberian Federal District To Be Chosen J8 Delegates Snd  Receive Grants and Enter Institutions of Higher Education Without Having to Compete for a Place

To qualify, high school students must win the “J8 Russian Competition”

The first stage of this competition is already underway in all the constituent entities of the Siberian Federal District (SFD).  The J8 Russian Competition is being conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in collaboration with St. Petersburg State University and the Young Peoples’ Social Movement “J8”, with the support of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Siberian Federal District and the local authorities of the SFD.

All participants must take part in three rounds of testing.  The eight final winners of these contests will form the 2010 J8 team, which will take part in a training program for possible participation in the J8 Summit.  These eight young people will also receive the right to enter any Russian institution of higher education without having to compete for a place, along with grants within the framework of the top priority national project titled “Education”.

Several of the J8 team members will be allowed to personally take part in the 2010 J8 Summit, which will be held in Canada.  Each year when the J8 Summit takes place outside of Russia,
a J8 delegation is constituted from one of the Russian federal districts.  These delegation members discuss the same issues with their peers that are on the G8 agenda, and present their perspective on how to deal with these issues to the G8 leaders.
 
In addition, the most active members of the competition continue their work, receive professional experience, develop their talents, and carry out national and international projects as members of the Young Peoples’ Social Movement J8.  Former J8 Summit participants organized this organization themselves.

To qualify for all of these opportunities, senior high school students from Siberia must be successful during three competition rounds.

During the first round of the competition, the regional competition committees from each of the 12 constituent entities of the SFD will determine the 6 best essays on one of the following topics:

1.    The G8 countries and global climate change issues.

2.    The economic crisis from the perspective of senior high school students including:  Economic collaboration between Russia and other countries, as well as the world financial system.

3.    Food supply problems and how to handle them.

4.    Education for all or elite education for talented students:  Is there a compromise?

5.    The younger generation and the health of the nation:  Prevention of infectious illnesses and a healthy life style.

6.    Tolerance-the guarantee of mankind’s survival.

7.    The history of the G8 and the modern geopolitics of these nations.

8.    The presidential initiative “Our New School”.  Reform of Russian education as a vital necessity.

9.    The Siberian Federal District unities its people.

10.    My native country-Russia.

The essay must be written in both Russian and in English and submitted by January 20, 2010.
This first round of the competition will be finished by early February.

During the second round of the competition, 1-2 winners will be selected from each of the 12   constituent entities of the SFD.  This will take place in Krasnoyarsk from February 21-28,  2010.    The winners will be chosen by the Central Competition Committee and will  be determined by a weeklong session of interviews, presentations, discussions, a game-like group activity, and English testing.  After this session is over, the Central Competition Committee will discuss the results and determine the members of the J8 team.

The winners will be invited to training sessions in both St. Petersburg and Moscow.  They will take part in psychological preparation for summit participation, receive instruction on the topics for discussion at the J8 Summit, as well as have lessons in English, rules of conduct at the summit, and how to work with the mass media.  At the end of the above training sessions, the Central Competition Committee will designate the team members who will personally participate at the 2010 J8 Summit.

Background Information

Junior 8-a young peoples’ social movement created by Russian J8 Summit participants.
The goal of this group is to identify and support educated, intelligent, talented, and patriotic young people in Russia and provide them with opportunities to be active citizens.

Junior 8 in Russia-a yearly contest held for the purpose of identifying the best high school aged pupils in one Russian federal district and forming a national delegation to the J8 Summit.

The Junior 8 Summit-a yearly meeting of high school students representing the G8 countries and developing countries, which takes place in parallel with the G8 Summit.  The goal of this meeting is to present the views of youth on solving global problems to the leaders of the G8 countries. In 2006, through Russia’s initiative, a summit of youth from the G8 countries (i.e, the J8 Summit) was officially included in the program of the G8 Summit.  In the years from 2007 to 2009 the J8 Summit took place in Germany, Japan, and Italy, respectively.  During this time, due to the support from special projects aimed at selecting a J8 Summit Russian delegation, a group of active, patriotic, talented, educated, and responsible youth was formed that decided not to limit their work only to summit activities.  They began the J8 social movement.

Junior 8 Projects that have been completed:
-Analysis of the national education initiative “Our New School”.
-Evaluation of the effectiveness of the top-priority national project titled “Education”.
-A special session called “The World in the Hands of Youth” which was held at the
  National Children’s Center “Orlenok”.  The topic of this session was “The Development of
  Tolerance in Russian Society.”
-Completion of the proposal for regulating the organizational procedures for the J8 Summit.
-Evaluation and development of the proposal for refining the Common National Examination.


Web:  www.j8club.ru, www.juniorg8.ru, e-mail:  info@juniorg8.ru, tel:  +7 (911) 256-55-04
J8 Russia Information Center Coordinator-Jane Sinepol