Press Centre

The Russian Delegation is already Working as a Team

Saint Petersburg State University is carrying out a pre-summit training program for the high school students who have been chosen to represent Russia at the Junior 8 Summit.

On May 8-9, 2007, these future representatives of Russia continued their summit training.

On Tuesday, May 8, the topic was HIV, a key topic for the summit. A. A. Yakovlev, Head of the Division for Infectious Diseases in the Medical School of SpbSU and A. I. Gorlinsky, a graduate student in the Department of International Relations at SpbSU gave the teens up-to-date information about the medical, sociological, and economic aspects of this global problem.

On Wednesday, T. A. Romanova, Associate Professor in the Division of European Research in the Department of International Relations at SpbSU, presented on the topic of energy, focusing on alternative sources of energy.

In addition, the young delegates took part in a psychological training activity titled “Emotional Self-Control.” The goal of this session was to teach these young people how to recognize and control their emotions, to not be overwhelmed in a stressful situation, and to react appropriately when angered. The teens role-played different situations. Fedor Manevsky, Leading Expert at the Non-governmental Educational Institution (NEI) “Architecture of the Future” and Senior Lecturer at SpbSU commented that he portrayed situations which were more stressful that what the youngsters were likely to encounter at the summit.

Even though they had a busy training program, the future delegates still had the energy to enjoy their leisure time. On May 9 they attended a festive parade which took place on Palace Square and went to the fireworks display on the Neva Embankment. The day before they took a trip to the sea-aquarium. “We saw a cow fish” remarked Anna Filippova, “It looked like an iron.” Dimitry Dubovskikh, remembering how he watched the sharks being fed, proposed a business idea: selling tickets to those wanting to see the Russian delegation being fed. Gleb Nikitin said, “We could also be tamed.” The psychologists, members of the Steering Committee, laughingly said that this meant that they also wouldn’t be left without work.

In only a few days, the group members have already become a team. They not only study, spend time together and joke with each other, but they also can now easily pick on another group member’s idea and develop it further, prompt each other, and correct each other. In other words they are learning how to help each other work as a team. During a team building activity, T. G. Yanicheva, Associate Professor at SpbSU and Director of the NEI “Architecture of the Future,” asked the group how their team could be best described. Olga Peshekhonova answered, “Mushrooms in a clearing, connected by an invisible thread.” Gleb Nikitin gave a similar analogy by saying, “Northern lights flowing in different colors, but united.”

The group has an additional three days of intense training ahead of them during which they will meet with a representative from UNICEF and Tatiana Ushakova, a member of the 2006 Russian Junior 8 Summit Delegation.

Pictured:

The Russian delegation
The Russian delegation at the sea-aquarium
The Russian delegation and members of the Steering Committee set off for the festive Victory Day parade