Press Centre

The Russian Junior 8 Delegation Prepares for the Summit- Day One

St. Petersburg State University (SpbSU) has begun pre-summit training for the teens who are members of the Russian Delegation to the Junior 8 Summit.

On May 7, 2007, the high school students who will be representing Russia at the Junior 8 Summit began their pre-summit training activities.

The teens got off to an active start for their day by jogging through a park close to the Smolny Cathedral. This morning exercise seemed to help them easily grasp and remember the lecture material presented by psychologists and professors from SpbSU. Valeria Ledkova commented that this was just perfect way to start the day. She was able to get absorb the lecture quite well.

Her team mates added that the lecture material was very difficult. A. E. Kuteinikov, an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology (sub-division of Sociology, Political and Social Processes) at SpbSU spoke on the history, importance, and the perspective of the G8. In addition, he discussed other international societal and political institutes and organizations. The time frame of this meeting was very tight, thus, as Gleb Nikitin commented, Dr. Kuteinikov was asked the most interesting questions informally during lunch.

Then the young delegation members went on a tour of the Tavrichesky Palace where they met with M. I. Krotov, the General Secretary of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Countries. In order to be on time for this meeting and to be appropriately dressed in more formal attire, they had exactly three minutes to change their clothes. The youngsters laughingly commented that this was also a type of training exercise-reaction speed.

After this meeting, in the Tavrichesky Palace, the delegation members had a lesson on conversational English. Olga Peshekhonova said, “Having an adequate vocabulary is very important. Our lesson showed us that we needed significant improvement in this area, especially in specialized political vocabulary.” That evening the teens had a large amount of English homework to do. Preparing the young delegation to speak English well is being given particular attention in their pre-summit training program.

The first day also included a session on how to work with the mass media, which was organized by the PR-agency Business Territory. Mr. I. A. Shamin taught the youngsters how to speak concisely and directly, focusing on vital issues. He also shared some secrets on how to look well on screen and to competently answer journalists’ questions.

“The day was filled with activities and even somewhat tense, but it was fine with me. I learned a lot of new and useful information,” summed up Maxim Usinin.

Pictured: Master class on working with the mass media. Ilya Shamin, delegation members