On 11 March, an interuniversity event “Night University” was held at Voronezh State University. It engaged students in extracurricular activities, provided them with the opportunity to communicate with university partners, and contributed to the promotion of design among young people.
“Night University” at Voronezh State University became a platform for out-of-the-box communication between employers and students. “Night University 2023” brought together about 20 partners, over 450 participants, and 120 organisers. The event was supported by major sponsors and companies: DOM.RF, Sber, Gazprombank, VTB, Kept, Sibur Holding, the Grad shopping centre, Mosigra, Hobby Games, Bunker, and Tochka zrenia. These partners organised entertainment events for students and provided gifts.
“I learned about the event from the VSU community and my friends supported the idea of visiting the event together: we, activists, are always interested in spending time together with a lot of people. “Night University” attracted us with a variety of activities. We were ready to play board games with Hobby games and Mosigra or to learn about business companies, but when we got there, we decided to participate in the quest. Thanks to organisers we had no time to get bored and could use different skills and knowledge”, said Elizaveta Usacheva, a student from the Faculty of Pharmacy of Voronezh State University.
Students participated in quests and a ball, played board games, and watched their favourite movies. Gifts from a large number of sponsors, including Colizeum, Quest Brothers, ALEX FITNESS, anime store Happy, Dodo Pizza, Buntarro Coffee, Charly Coffee Family, and Blinchik, madethe event even more exciting.
“Weekends are made for relaxation! We tried to help people make the best of it. During the “Night University”, students had a chance to meet new people, have a rest, and show their skills and talents!” said Nikita Shelopugin, one of the leaders of the “Night University” project.
Among the organisers of the event were students from Voronezh State University who are members of the Joint Students’ Board: Matvey Mikhalsky, Nikita Shelopugin, Nikita Peresypkin, Valery Fugarov, and Ekaterina Burdovitsyna, and representatives of the PIXEL media community. The managers of the project are planning to expand it and introduce an educational programme into the “Night University”.
“During the event, Voronezh students had the opportunity to receive information about companies and employment opportunities and to meet new people. In the future, this event organised by the VSU Joint Students’ Board will include an educational part and will develop into a large grant project, which will be implemented with the support of Rosmolodezh”, said Matvey Mikhalsky, Chairman of the Joint Students’ Board of Voronezh State University.
The board and team games allowed the representatives of companies to get to know the Voronezh students. Dom.RF offered the visitors of the event to play an adaptation of the game “Crocodile” which was associated with the banking sector, Sber had prepared the game “Memes” for students, and Sibur Holding offered a chemistry quiz. These and many other partners told the participants about their organisations and invited them to complete internships.
“Our company is interested in young employees. Over the years of searching for young employees in the Voronezh labour market, we have learnt that the best specialists can be found at such student events. During “Night University”, students talked with our HR specialist who told them about events, internships, and projects at our company. Students left us their contact details and next week we will send out a newsletter which will allow students to apply for internships”, said Ekaterina Romanenko, Head of the Centre for Career Brand Development of the DOM.RF group of companies.
“Students played the team game “Memes” whose focus is on visualisation and imagination. Before that, we presented the opportunities of our SberAgent referral programme. Our potential agents are students who can work in their free time and recommend Sber's services. They can do the job at any convenient time,” said Anna Bascheva, a manager of Sber's agency sales.
The event was open not only for students of Voronezh State University. Every representative of the university could invite up to three students from other educational institutions of the city.
“Recently, I have been thinking a lot about getting a job. For me, the “Night University” was a great opportunity to learn about the leading organisations in the region. This is a good example of when opportunities match your plans”, said Alina Kostennikova, a student from Voronezh State Technical University.
