On February 19, high school and university students gathered in the Assembly Hall, SSU Bldg. 10, who were introduced into the world of complex and delicate relations between teachers and students in the Year of Teachers and Mentors. The teaching staff of the Faculty of Psychology organised the Mentors Images triptych show for their listeners.

In her welcoming speech, the Chair of the Department of Pedagogy Ekaterina Balakireva explained to the guests of the faculty how the meeting would be organised and its peculiarity. ‘The triptych is three stories told to you by our mentors, those who have passed this school themselves. This is a memory that I wanted to continue today. Mentoring is a gift of high professionalism and a big heart of teachers. There are no accidental meetings,’ she assured.

The Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, Professor Lyudmila Aksenovskaya called the meeting a holiday and introduced the SSU Head of Priority Projects and Programmes, Professor Elena Yelina to the audience.

She recalled that 2023 was declared the Year of Teachers and Mentors by the decree of the Russian President, and the start of it in the region was given at SSU. ‘Our university was chosen because it is the only university in the region that trains teachers and mentors.’

Associate Professor of the Department of Social Psychology Aleksei Ponukalin presented the first story of the triptych entitled Teachers in Mind, Mentors in Heart: About a Person Who Lives Both in There. He shared his memories of his father, whom he considered his mentor. He showed photos of his father near Berlin in 1945 and in a peaceful atmosphere – with a friend on a catamaran. Aleksei Ponukalin said that it was thanks to his father and his example that since childhood he had been negotiating not in fights but intelligently.

The second story of the triptych, Petersburg Traditions: Boris Parygin, was presented by Lyudmila Aksenovskaya. She told the meeting members about her mentor Boris Parygin, the author of more than 400 research papers, the founder of Russian social psychology, who was fond of both music and sports. The зportrait sculpture of this man is installed at the department of St. Petersburg State University. The professor also spoke about the case of the jacket that her mentor helped her put on, meaning by the story the importance of following traditions.

The final part of the triptych was held in the form of a dialogue about mentoring between Associate Professor of the Department of Social Psychology Anna Smirnova and Associate Professor of the Department of Pedagogy Ekaterina Balakireva. They pondered over the main issues of the meeting, Who Can We Call Mentors? How Do They Differ from Teachers?.

‘People can become mentors only when there are adequate students around them – students who correspond to the mentors. Talented students are those who are intellectually and emotionally ready to perceive the ideas of their mentors,’ at the end of the meeting, Elena Yelina said.

The second part of the programme was a meeting with schoolchildren and a conversation about the 2023 admission rules. High school students learned about the peculiarities of admission and training at the Faculty of Psychology.