PolyUnion Student Interclub Marks 5th Anniversary with Celebration

The five-year anniversary of the PolyUnion international club was celebrated in a festive and friendly atmosphere. Five years is a significant period of time, during which hundreds of Russian and foreign students have made friends thanks to Polytechnic and Interclub. This is not only an international student space, but also the people who fill it with life and organize its work.

Andrei Rudskoi, rector of SPbPU, academician of the RAS, congratulated the students: With an excellent grade to you! Five points! This is an excellent grade for this year and for the quality of the Interclub’s work. I remember when we opened this club. Many who were there then have now graduated, and I am glad to see you again at this celebration. Polytechnic is the first international among technical universities: we have more than five thousand international students. We are expanding the range of training, including within the framework of the Russian-African Network University, of which we are the coordinator. Now we are preparing to open the Unified Center for Registration of Foreign Citizens, a multifunctional cluster on the campus. It will solve all the issues of migration and visa registration, registration, accommodation in university dormitories and medical insurance. This year is special for Polytechnic because it is the jubilee year. And very soon, on February 19, the 125th anniversary celebration will be held, where the best international students will be invited.

Since the very first day of the Interclub, tutors have been actively involved in it. At the anniversary, Rector of SPbPU Andrei Rudskoi awarded the head of TutorForces Ksenia Gladina and her team. This year, the new composition of the Council of Polytechnic Compatriots started its work. For 5 years, the Interclub has developed its own international students’ asset. The Rector also awarded the head of PolyUnion Alexandra Le Gall and her team.

Polytechnic institutes started to create their own associations of international students. Thus, the Institute of Humanities, represented by Elizaveta Lupandina and her team, was honored at the ceremony.

Some Interclub activists have already graduated from Polytechnic, but do not break ties with it. Some have left for their homeland, others have stayed in Russia and found work at their alma mater. The Rector of SPbPU presented a badge of honor to Al Hadj Bara Bibars from Syria, a graduate of the Institute of Humanities, a postgraduate student of IIEMT. Bibars found his vocation in photography. He has been working as a photographer in the Public Relations Department of SPbPU for several years.

A badge of honor was presented to Itri Hanaa from Morocco, a graduate of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade: Five years ago I chose Polytechnic, and thanks to this all my dreams have come true. Thanks to Interclub, because when I came to Russia I didn’t speak Russian at all. I met a lot of good people here. Here I got a family — that’s what every foreign student needs. Thank you, Polytechnic University. Thank you, Interclub.

Hanaa went the whole way of a foreign student: from preparatory faculty to postgraduate studies and teaching at the department, organized her own business in Russia and became the founder of her own brand of products from Morocco.

Li Junying recited Fyodor Tyutchev’s poem «You can’t understand Russia with your mind…». Indonesian band SecretScarlet performed at the jubilee, playing a drum kit donated by the university. At the end of the celebration, international students of Polytechnic University presented Andrei Rudskoi with a memorable gift, including a picture painted by a student from Indonesia, Shakur Muhammad Abid A.