Saratov State University hosted student patriotic forum on November, 17.

Seven Saratov universities took part in the forum: Saratov State University, Saratov State Vavilov Agrarian University, Saratov State Medical University, Yuri Gagarin State Technical University of Saratov, Stolypin Volga Region Institute of Administration, Saratov Socio-Economic Institute, and Saratov State Academy of Law. The delegations presented their patriotic initiatives.

The regional forum is a part of the federal project “All-Russia Network of Student Patriotic Centers” under the RF Ministry of Education and Science. The Forum is organized by Saratov State University, All-Russia youth organization “Students of Russia” and the regional Ministry of Youth Policy, Sport and Tourism.

At the opening ceremony representatives of organizational committee addressed the participants. Vice-rector for secondary professional education and social work O.Ye. Nesterova wished them success.

“Students of Russia” organization Chair O.V. Zoria thanked Saratov University and the Ministry for cooperation and gathering students who do volunteer, patriotic and charity work. They are the target audience of the forum, according to the Chair. Visit to Saratov is the first in the series of meetings on coordinating student patriotic unions.

Head of the federal project “All-Russia Network of Student Patriotic Centers”, Chair of the “Students of Russia” federal council A.A. Karpukhina called up for an open discussion as the forum provides an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience and present ideas.

This year, patriotic forums take place in twenty regions of Russia; they should result in creating an information center that would gather data on all project meetings providing a real opportunity to promote student initiatives.

At the opening ceremony, head of the youth organization committee of the Ministry A.A. Abrashin said SSU is a perfect place to promote moral values and host a forum like that. In his opinion, patriotic education is one of the main aspects of youth policy; every year over two hundred young people from Saratov region take part in patriotic campaign and organize them.

The forum included workshop on design and planning of student patriotic union work, meeting “Student patriotic center work model”, project session “New technologies of patriotic education” and presentations of Saratov initiatives.

Saratov State University presented its project “SSU Day at the Victory Park” at the forum. Chair of the SSU students and graduate students union Georgy Bolotov presented the history of the event. In his opinion, it is very important to keep ties between generation, and the project aims exactly at that.

Final event of the patriotic forum was a talk-show with two teams of four people “Unity” and “Generation Millennium”. Head of the federal project “All-Russia Network of Student Patriotic Centers” A.A. Karpukhina was the host. The jury included “Students of Russia” organization Chair O.V. Zoria, deputy minister for youth policy A.A. Belovitskaya, Office of Student Educational Work Head A.V. Golovchenko, Chief specialist of the Youth Organizations Department of the regional Ministry of Youth Policy, Sport and Tourism A.V. Zozulia, Head of the Patriotic Education Department V.N. Kalin.

The questions triggered a heated discussion, audience vote and the jury’s evaluation added to the teams’ opinion. “Generation Millennium” won the show almost unanimously as the team demonstrated its art of persuasion and rhetoric.

At the end of the day, O.V. Zoria voiced his hope to continue working with Saratov universities. “I hope Saratov will have patriotic centers supporting student initiatives and student will get access to the federal projects. We thank SSU for creating this opportunity to meet with active young people. We are glad to have such partners in the region”.