News

Meetings at UNOV language services

On 9 and 10 April 9 and 10, 2025, SCIT Director Angelique Antonova  had a meeting with the heads and staff of the UNOV Russian language services in Vienna. The partners confirmed the previously reached agreement to hold remote and face-to-face workshops for SCIT students by UN translators, and the participation of UN staff translators as observers at the SCIT aptitude tests and final examinations. A program of short-term internships and long-term internships was also discussed.

Marianna Matakova, Head of the UNOV Interpretation Section with the Conference Management Service in Vienna, assured that the practice of short-term internships in dumb booths for SCIT students will continue. As an illustration, this year two SCIT students have passed a competitive selection for a one-week internship and are preparing to go to Vienna in May.

Igor Solovyov, Head of the Russian booth at UNOV, praised the high professional level of SCIT graduates coming to Vienna for short-term contracts. Currently, three SCIT graduates are working on short-term interpreting contracts in Vienna.

Ahed Abdul, Head of the UNOV Conference Management Service in Vienna, also expressed satisfaction with the general level of training at SCIT, especially noting profesionalism and high motivation of Igor Shapovalov and Dmitry Osadchuk, SCIT graduates  and currently full-time UNOV translators.

Regions go ahead!

On 21 and 22 March 2025 Dostoevskiy Omsk State University hosted All-Russian research and practical conference Linguistics and Translation Today: Translating Regions!  SCIT President Prof. Irina Alexeeva was invited to speak at the opening plenary . Her presentation Literary Translation: Regions go ahead! was devoted to the analysis of the efforts put in organizing the effective interaction in training  literary translators.

Besides, Irina Alexeeva held a master-class Where to train for the international career in interpreting? for the students of Omsk State University where she presented St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation and spoke about the training process at SCIT. The master-class sparked interest among the participants.

Internship programs for SCIT students and graduates

Our hearty congratulations to the SCIT students who have won places for a week-long internship with the Russian interpretation section at UNOV. Two people have successfully passed through the sieve of the selection process and are now getting ready for the May practice session in Vienna.  This internship will without doubt equip them with the detailed knowledge of the institutional workflow at UNOV, and we are sure that SCIT students will show their best and benefit enormously from this precious opportunity.

We are also happy for the SCIT graduate Alexandra Malakhova, who upon completion of the internship week at UNON in November 2024 moved to Geneva to join the WIPO staff on the long-term internship program.  Alexandra is working hard in Geneva boosting her qualifications and obtaining valuable experience of working for the international organization. We send our congratulations to Alexander Dolganov who successfully finished his internship with WMO in 2024.

We hope that summer months will offer more opportunities for internships as our students and graduate are eager to join staff translators and interpreters in international organizations to try out their newly acquired skills of institutional language mediation.

Meetings in the Russian MFA

On 20 of February a Herzen University delegation consisting of Rector Sergey Tarasov, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation and Internationalization Sergey Sheremet and Director of the St. Petersburg  School of Conference Interpreting and Translation Angelique Antonova paid a visit to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  At the meeting with Alexander Alimov, Director of the Department for Multilateral Humanitarian Cooperation and Cultural Relations, the parties discussed the prospects of cooperation in the extensive program of promotion of the Russian language and culture abroad carried out by this department. SCIT Director Angelika Antonova also spoke in detail about the university’s participation in the international celebration of Russian Language Day, celebrated annually on June 6, and about the regularly organized seminars of the professional upgrading for translators of international organizations working with the Russian language. Alexander Alimov noted that the format of such seminars developed by SCIT is of great interest for teachers of the Russian language abroad. The Russian MFA is ready to support and develop this project, and the SCIT staff , together with the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, are actively working to organize a new seminar “Russian Verbal Culture as a source of Humor in modern Russian public Discourse” in June 2025. Moreover, colleagues from the Asia-Pacific region also showed interest in the seminars, and the Russian MFA voiced a request to organize similar seminars on the Russian socio-political discourse for translators and teachers of the Russian language in China.

The guests from St. Petersburg also had a meeting with Sergey Gritsai, Director of the Linguistic Support Department in the Russian MFA, where prospects for cooperation between the department and the university were discussed. Rector Sergey Tarasov invited Sergey Gritsai to attend the diploma awarding ceremony for the SCIT graduates in June 2025, and also spoke about regular master classes, both in-person and remote,  held by the Linguistic Support Department specialists for the SCIT students. There are many SCIT graduates among these specialists, as 20 SCIT graduates have worked or are currently working at the Russian MFA. During the conversation, the parties agreed that in order to increase the effectiveness of training, veterans of the MFA  translation service should also be involved in giving master classes. We hope that this useful practice will soon be implemented.

Master class with Daria Mandrova, MFA interpreter

On December 13, the SCIT students had a remote master-class with Daria Mandrova, a SCIT graduate and a staff interpreter at the Linguistic Support Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Daria is a very experienced interpreter, she has repeatedly been involved in working with top state officials at important international meetings and negotiations. We are very grateful to Dasha that she found time in her work schedule to meet with the students, hold a training session, and share her best practices, techniques and professional know-how. It is very important for today’s students to receive support from a senior colleague who went from being a SCIT graduate to a top interpreter from the President’s pool. We hope that such master classes will continue!