All-Russia Student Leader Competition and educational leader term are annual events that all Russian students look forward to. This year, young activists met at ‘Raduga’ sport center of Don State Technical University in Divnomorsk, Krasnodar Krai.

For five days, 16 finalists showed their skills in different areas of union work. Traditionally, they presented themselves and their organizations in ‘Self-portrait’ competition. Legal knowledge is very important for a union worker, so, according to Olga Takunova, questions in the second part of the competition on student legislation were quite difficult and required extensive preparation. “Infographics and Survey competitions showed the participants’ skills in analyzing information”, shared Olga. “We already did a survey. I got the topic of “Student self-governance in an educational organization” – on the one hand, it was very close to my work, but the task got more difficult because we had only one hour to prepare a questionnaire and could not change it afterwards”.

Another task – ‘Union meeting’ – was aimed at negotiating skills. According to SSU Student Union, there was a surprise: “We had to systematized information of the Union Code and explain it in a simple language”.

The competition program was mixed with lessons and trainings in which about 400 union representatives from all over the country took part.

All-Russia Student Leader Competition 2015 award ceremony took place on September 22. Sergey Shegolev from Orel won the first place, our Olga Takunova was second, and Julia Zonnova from Kemerova got the third place. After the competition the finalists planted trees at the Leaders’ Alley to commemorate their participation in Student Leader Competition 2015.

“When I walked on the stage I was thinking first of all that I represent our university and Saratov Region. The responsibility was great because last time Saratov region participate in the competition 10 years ago, in 2006”, shared Olga.

For Olga Takunova the competition was a chance to test her self. “I think I did a good job representing the University, the region. Competitions like that provide an opportunity to understand your mistakes, to get experience. I am grateful to people who supported me and helped to win the prize”.

Olga had a big group of supporters. SSU students helped her to solve difficult tasks. Victoria Bannikova, Julia Denisova, Anastasia Malkina, Julia Bugrova, Anna Pchelintseva, Aleksey Poliakov, Nikita Karpov and Vitali Alenin also went to Divnomorsk.

SSU Rector A.N. Chumachenko commented that Olga’s success at All-Russia “Student Leader” Competition is a result of SSU Union work. Today there are 10083 students in the Union. “Our Student Union is the largest in the region and the most effective. We are proud of its victories!”.