Manifestos for the new committee elections

Dear friends,

These are the Manifestos for the upcoming committee elections on the 5th Nov:

 

Name: Vladimir Kovaliov

Position: Guest Speaker Officer

Subject: Land Economy (1st year, BA)

College: Wolfson College

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

We live in the time of strengthening cosmopolitanism. This is the reason why people of various countries and nationalities are influenced by a huge variety of different cultures. I believe that to preserve the uniqueness of Russian identity it is vital to continue sharing the same values, aspirations and interests among us, people who consider themselves to be Russian.

This idea I have been keeping in mind since early childhood when I was told it by my family. Therefore, getting an opportunity to participate actively in the pleasant routine of the Cambridge University Russian Society would be a great honour for me.

What can I offer for the Society? I should say that I acquired several years of managerial and organizational experience in intense entrepreneurial environment before starting my studies. I plan to implement these skills in order to make the Society even more interesting and attractive. Particularly, I would like to contribute in the sphere of bringing new guest speakers. I’m really fascinating by the reach history of held speeches back in the day. However, I’m more excited about the fact that I could have an opportunity to broaden the circle of distinguished visitors to the Society.

I promise to do my best to achieve the set objectives in the name of contributing to Russian culture and the Cambridge University Russian Society, in particular!

 

Name: Vasily A. Semiletov

Position: Sport Officer

Subject:  Acoustics

College: Cambridge University Department of Engineering, Whittle Lab (I have not got any colleges)

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

I was born at Kurgan (somewhere behind the Ural mountains). I graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University, faculty of mechanics and mathematics. I defended my PhD thesis at Keldysh Institute for Applied Mathematics. 6 months ago I moved to Cambridge and now I am a postDoc at the Whitle lab.

Since being at Cambridge, I have got involved in football games organized by Anton Lokhmotov. His motto is ‘We welcome people of all abilities, nationalities, ages and sexes, because our first and foremost goal is to have fun (although keeping fit is also important)!’ At the present time I follow it and coordinate this activity every weekend. I also run some regular sport events such as tennis and cycling around Cambridgeshire.

I’ve really enjoyed my 4 months as informal sport leader so far. I would love the opportunity to represent it as a Sport Officer in CURS. I look forward to enlarging present sport activities. So far I did it just for fun but would be glad to consider your wishes and interests. First of all I will listen to the voice of CURS members, so what is it that you want?

The land of Cambridge and UK generally is really rich of sports opportunities. So for me it seems interesting to organize occasionally:

- Jogging-cross

- Cycling route

- Paintball

- Kayaking

- Hiking trip (tents, bonfire and guitar songs).

Have a fun, but remember a healthy body, healthy mind.

 

With best wishes,

Vasily

 

Name: Nadia Chernenko

Position: Treasurer

Subject: PhD in Economics

College: Trinity

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto

I was born in a small town Surgut in Siberia, where passed my childhood and most of school time. I then moved to Moscow where I did my undergraduate degree and after that to Cambridge where I am now studying, in fact, the Russian economy. Having spent time on Russian Society parties and meetings, I think the moment has come to contribute more actively to the Society’s work by joining the committee. I am standing for the position of the treasurer – not the last reason being my present studies in economics and previous internships in accounting. In the past, I acted as a treasurer in the undergraduate student society in Moscow and more recently in the University Riding Club here in Cambridge. Organise various events and parties, promote Russian culture and Russian language, and keep the accounts in order – this is what I would like to bring to the CU Russian Society and hope to do the work at my best.

 

Name: Alexey Morgunov

Position: External Relations Officer

Subject: Biochemistry (3rd year undergrad)

College: Trinity College

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

Born and bred in Moscow, I also spent a significant part of my childhood in Budapest, making me a quasi-Hungarian Russian living in England. Having spent almost half of my life away from my home country, I have always felt strongly about spreading Russian culture abroad, from teaching Russian language to Hungarians (certainly the 13th unsung labour of Hercules) to organising fun cultural events. In Cambridge, I would like to share my enthusiasm for the Russian culture with others as part of the CURS committee.

Organising events is something I really enjoy – otherwise I wouldn’t have been involved in so many Cambridge societies in my two years here. During this time, I’ve gained valuable experience of being on committees, running events and I have met a huge number of very interesting people! I believe that my experience and my connections with other societies in Cambridge, coupled with my dedication and passion, would make me a good External Relations Officer, and I hope that I can be an active part of organising a new year of fantastic events for CURS!

 

Best wishes,

Alexey

 

Name: Evgeny Zatulovskiy

Position: President

Subject: Biophysics

College: Gonville and Caius (4th year)

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

Being originally from a small Russian town named Pikalevo, I’ve graduated from St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University with a Master degree in Physics and then moved to Cambridge for a PhD. During my stay in Cambridge I have got gradually involved in the Cambridge University Russian Society activities and joined the 2010/2011 Executive Committee as an Intellectual Development Officer. I continued Nikolay Murashkin’s initiative to organise the famous “What? Where? When?” quiz in Cambridge. This game is popular between Russian-speaking people all over the world, and Cambridge has become the first ever in Britain University having a stable “What? Where? When?” club. As a result our team has won the UK student cup and took bronze medals in the general competition.

And this year, besides keeping intellectual and cultural events in the CURS at the highest level reached by previous Committees, I would like also to develop a broader spectrum of activities organised by our Society. I am planning to focus particularly on improving two directions, which have a good potential, in my opinion, and which are balancing each other. First, I think we can organise more entertaining events – such as national and international parties, food fairs, celebrations and even simply clubbing. And the second direction is bringing more sport events into the Society’s life. Those might be football, cycling, tennis, or even chess (not forgetting about badminton, of course!).

I believe that together with a new Committee team we will keep the Society’s life up to the high standards provided by our previous colleagues!

 

Name: Nino Nikolovski

Position: Secretary or Public Relations Officer

Subject: PhD in Biochemistry

College: Corpus Christi

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

I’m originally from Macedonia, but am very much attached to Russia. I lived there for 6 years and almost instantly fell in love with the country, its people, culture and traditions. I made lifelong friends and conceder Russia my second homeland. Therefore, I would like to be part of the CURS committee and help the society as much as I can.

I graduated from Kazan State University with a M.Sc. degree in Genetics and then went on for a PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology and Michigan State University. After my PhD, I came to Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biochemistry. Quite soon after my arrival here I wanted to meet the Russian society and participate in the events (my favorite one is the annual Vodka Party). Last year I entered the committee as an Art Design Officer and later on as the Secretary of the society. I would like to keep the post, since I do enjoy advertising events, designing flyers and posters and maintaining the website.

 

Sincerely,

Nino

 

Name: Milena Milicevic

Position: Public Relations or Events Officer

Subject: Management

College: Murray Edwards

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Dear friends from Cambridge University Russian Society,

It is my pleasure to apply for the Public Relations or Events position in your executive committee. My name is Milena Milicevic and as I interacted with some of you I realized that the values of CURS are team-work, outgoing spirit and incessant creativity. Originally I come from Serbia where I obtained my first Master degree from the Faculty of Philology. Now, based in Cambridge, at Murray Edwards College, I synergize my MPhil in Management studies at Judge Business School with an interest in international communication, cultural diplomacy and Latin-American dancing.

The main reason why I want to contribute to CURS is to raise awareness on unique features of Slavic culture and to use my creative and organizational skills in the projects and with the people I care for. I am positive that my engagement in CURS will connect better Russian-speaking and Balkan Cambridge communities in terms of informal networking, mutually organized events and providing interesting information on our countries. As I have internship experience in PR field and event organization in Serbia, Germany and Italy, I feel at home when it comes to presenting, persuading, promoting and fundraising.

Also, I believe that a language is best learnt via completing tasks and interaction. Thus, I hope that upon graduating from Cambridge I will, among many things, both improve my fluency in Russian and obtain friends and colleagues for a lifetime.

I look forward to our collaboration in future.

With kind regards,

Milena Milicevic

 

Name: Dasha Ausiannikava

Position: Secretary

Subject: 2nd year PhD In Genetics/Gurdon Institute

College: St John’s College

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

How I see the role of the Secretary

I have a great admiration both for Russian culture and Cambridge. If I were elected as secretary, I would passionately contribute to organizing events and will try to make things on time and in the best possible way.

What knowledge and experience I would bring to the role

I have experience of being both undergrad and graduate UK student. Originally from Belarus I got my first degree from Edinburgh University and then continued as a PhD student in Cambridge.

I have a strong interest in activities of the Russian society and have attended many events throughout the year. Moreover I helped to organized several of them. I will continue to do this with all responsibility and passion.

 

Name: Anastasia Zolotareva

Position: Vice-President

College: Trinity College (alumnus)

Subject: MPhil in Social Anthropological Analysis

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Друзья!

It has been a pleasure to serve on the committee as Entertainment and Events Officer.

I must say that despite all the challenges the committee had to face I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! This time I am running for the position of Vice-President as I would like to get more involved with strategic management of the Society.

My vision is to raise the profile of CURS by:

• strengthening ties with peer organisations/universities in Russia

• setting up an interactive resource that would allow lay members to have their say on events agenda

• engaging with a larger number of speakers

• attracting more quality sponsorship

• identifying, utilising and promoting in-house expertise and exemplary practice (such as our special project What?Where?When?)

I would like CURS to become a springboard for inspiration, action and professionalism.

 

Name: Oleksandr Poplavskyy

Position applied for: Communications Officer

Subject: PhD in Chemistry

College: Selwyn

Nominated by: Nikolay Murashkin and Sergey Sitnikov

Manifesto:

My name is Oleksandr Poplavskyy, I originally come from Kiev, Ukraine, and I am currently studying for a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry. Before coming to the UK, I also studied in the Netherlands (Utrecht), and worked for some time in Paris, France. In Cambridge, I served for a year a position in the CURS committee, and in this academic year I would be happy to serve in the committee again, although in a different position. Interpreting “communications” in a rather broad sense, I would like to contribute in the following directions:

1) Being responsible for the weekly conversational evenings.

2) Keeping up-to-date info about the society’s

events on the web-site, editing the newsletters distributed through the mailing list and also through facebook, updating the photo gallery, answering questions (if any) asked through the web-site by persons from outside etc.

3) Publicising the society and its events by all other possible means.

Besides, I would be happy to help the society flourish in whatever else way I could help!

 

Name: Anton Lokhmotov

Position: Trustee in Science and Technology

Subject: Computer Science

College:

Nominated by: Evgeniya Galinskaya, Elena Lileeva

 

Background

I have been inextricably linked with CURS for many years, being its Vodka Officer (2004-2005), President (2005-2006), Consultant (2006-2007), and Trustee in Science and Technology (2007-2011). I would like to join the Executive Committee 2011-2012 to share my experience, enthusiasm and love for the Russian culture and language.

I obtained an MSc in Applied Mathematics and Physics in 2004, and a PhD in Computer Science in 2008. After completing a two-year post-doctoral contract at Imperial College London, I returned to Cambridge to work in industry. I am currently leading a team of senior engineers, as well as supervising PhD and undergraduate students.

- Trustee in Science and Technology

I find particularly rewarding to engage in voluntary work with school- students. I believe it’s important to encourage them and explain how fun and rewarding careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) can be.

In 2010, I organised a video address from CURS to participants of the Russian national conference ‘Avantegarde’, which every year attracts around 100 gifted school-students from all over Russia. In 2011, in addition to the video address, I obtained a £1,000 grant to allow the winner of a special CURS prize to visit Cambridge.

In the short term, I would like to continue promoting CURS support for STEM activities. In the long term, I am interested in establishing exchange programmes and scholarships between Cambridge and Russia.

 

Name: Nikolay Murashkin

Position: Councillor

Subject: Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

College: St Catharines

Nominated by: Sergey Sitnikov and Evgeniy Zatulovskiy

 

After 2 years of my service at CURS committee as What?-Where?-When? Officer and president, I would like to offer this experience as well as my past multi-year NGO experience in a councillor quality. I would also be happy to contribute to general organisational routine of CURS and various events, especially cultural ones.

With kind regards,

Nikolay