News

Introduction into Simultaneous

On 10 November SCIT held the traditional student conference on introduction into simultaneous interpreting. This is always a special occasion at the School: trainers put much effort in the preparation, carefully choose and discuss the teaching materials. The conference takes the whole day, as to ensure the success of the first simultaneous experience one needs a lot of preparation: discuss expectations and neutralize fears, activate the background knowledge and the necessary vocabulary. An additional challenge is that the  introduction into sim is held for both working languages of the students.

We are happy that this year all worked well for our students! Braving the November fatigue they pulled the five hour simultaneous marathon, did their best in the booths and are now looking forward to conquering new heights, even if only in the training environment!

(Русский) Виртуальная конференция с Европейской комиссией

On 6 October SCIT students had their first virtual conference with the European Commision. Predictably, the first virtual class was devoted to the issues of autonomous learning and preparation for interpretation. The class was conducted by Paolo Torrigiani, Senior Expert Multilingualism and Knowledge Development Unit DG Interpretation European Commission, developed a very intensive program for the conference, covering such aspects as basic principles of self-training and learning management, key factors of a successful training session, as well as practice in organizing a self-training session.  Each group of students presented their version of the self-training session, followed by the feedback session.  The conference gave the students a useful insight into the effectiveness of their autonomous learning techniques and showed the ways to improve it. We thank Paolo Torrigiani and Fernando Leitao, Head of the E-learning Unit, for organizing this useful activity!

SCIT team at EEF in Vladivostok

On 2-4 September Vladivostok hosted the Eastern Economic Forum, a major international event, that would not have taken place without interpreters. Among those who facilitated the communication among the participants was a big team of SCIT trainers and graduates – Zhanna Shuklina, Alexey Pago, Oxana Yakimenko, Anastasia Gavrilina, Elena Zheltova, Sofia Chantseva, Anna Sazonova.  Taking into account the topicality of the Far East and the Arctic for Russia’s foregin and home policy one can’t overestimate the importance of the plenaries and  discussions on the margins. Our interpreteers worked at the plenaries as well as at the international APEC conference on higher education and Sber’s interactive session on the ESG investment opportunities in Russia. We are sure that the SCIT team showed the highest professional standards and were among the best.

SCIT takes part in EMCI General Assembly

On 9 September SCIT took part in teh EMCI General Assembly. The school is proud to hold the place in this consortium of 16 prestigious European universities. The agenda included various issues: the report on the 2020-2021 QA EMCI project, planning the work of the consortium in 2021-2022, introducing changes in the consortium statutes allowing for the SISU to become an observer to EMCI, and voting for the platform to ensure the virtual interpreter training. Of the five options the choice was made in favour of Interprefy which can be efficiently used for the training purposes. The observers at the General Assambley were Javier Hernandez Saseta, Head of Multilingualism and Interpreter Training Support Unit, and Fernando Leitao, Head of the E-Learning Unit,  DG Interpretation (EC), and Cathie Pierson, Head of Multilingualism Unit in the European Parliament. SCIT was represented by Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director.

New academic year at SCIT begins

On 1 September SCIT celebrated the commencement of the new academic year.

Irina Alexeeva, SCIT Director, welcomed the new students with such words, “You will face difficulties, but you’de better overcome them with a smile. You will turn different people in a year’s time. Today is the first day on the way of serious changes, but for it to happen you have to put in your own efforts. Any quality education, and not in the field of translation only, is self-education.  We have come to this world with the only purpose – to learn it and one’s own place in it,  and such self-discovery is the discovery of the world”.

The new students were welcomed by Nikolay Lukichev, the Counselor of the Russian MFA in St. Petersburg, and by the trainers Yury Shashkov  and Sergey Afonin. They wished the novices to successfully start on the new stage in their personal development and strengthen the group community. The trainers remarked that the more effort would go into the training, the less stressful the professional life would be in the future.

Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director, underlined, “Your professional success will depend not on the knowledge you will acquire, but largely on how united you will be as a collective, how good you will be for each other as colleagues and friends “.

SCIT’s recent graduates and the trainers now engaged at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok greeted the new students, as well the graduates from previous years from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and even New York. Alexander Pankov, Herzen University graduate and presently editor at the Russian Verbatim Reports Section at UNHQ, told the newcomers about the work and possible internships in the UN in the UN. The all stressed that the School years gave knowledge as well as close friends and reliable colleagues. Angelina Pavlova, this year’s graduate, wished the new cohort a productive year, to support each other in any adversity and to lose no time at SCIT.