On 28 July a Diploma Award Ceremony for SCIT graduates took place in the Mariinsky Hall of Herzen University. The ceremony was attended by a lot of distinguished guests, among whom were Movses Abelian, Assistant to the UN Secretary General, Vladimir Goncharenko, Director of the Linguistic Support Department, Russian MFA, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Director of the UN Information Center in Moscow, Vladimir Zapevalov, Russian MFA Representative in St. Petersburg, Irina Ganus, Deputy Head of the Committee for Science and Higher Education, Government of St. Petersburg, William Hackett-Jones, Director of Eclectic Translations. The Herzen University administration was represented by Gennady Bordovsky, President of Herzen University, and Mikhail Puchkov, Acting Vice-Rector.
In their welcoming speeches the guests stressed the importance of language mediation for international communication. They metaphorically spoke of interpretation as ‘swimming’ and compared interpreters with a rescue team in the sea of communication.
SCIT Director Irina Alexeeva presented her annual report on the results of the study year. She outlined the SCIT mission today as improving the quality of translation with Russian on the international arena and promoting the Russian language and culture worldwide. It is also essential, she said, to contribute to the development of the T&I industry in Russia, and make SCIT a brand name for Herzen University.
This year SCIT turned out 7 graduates, with one of them receiving a SCIT diploma within the joint study project with Geneva University.
Farewell, and may a following wind fill your sails, dear graduates!