The program of the Festival included lectures of world experts from the USA, China, Finland and other countries, the competition where student teams presented their social projects and also the conference ‘’Global Trends in Social Entrepreneurship and the Role of Universities’’.
Most of the judges are representatives of charitable organizations. All the teams received the sincere congratulations for the activity and social responsibility, as well as prizes.
The jury chose three best teams: One of them is the “ICoin” project of Chinese team, which inspires people to make donations and optimizes charity collection. The best Russian project is ‘’Professional Games’’ designed by Maksim Ivanov, the student of ITMO University. The ‘’Professional Games’’ is aimed at development and implementation of uncommon practical trainings in schools and universities. American winner is ‘’Graffity Gardens’’ project, which popularizes urban greening using graffiti technology.
Stanislav Zabotyn, the head of regional projects of foundation ‘’Our Future’’, supposes that the most significant feature of the Festival is its` international level. He told the participants, ‘’Social entrepreneurs have to cooperate not only within their home country but also with foreign colleagues. Nowadays humankind has a lot of serious problems that we have to solve together’’.
The conference ‘’Global Trends in Social Entrepreneurship and the Role of Universities’’ was devoted to the results of the Festival and topical problems of social entrepreneurship in Russia and all over the world. The mentors from different countries spoke at this conference and also worked together with the student teams for four days. Among the speakers were Archie Holton, the American entrepreneur and actor, Andrew Atkeson, the professor of economics and finance, Mikko Markkanen, the expert of innovations and entrepreneurship and others. Russian specialists also presented their reports on social entrepreneurship development. Philip Kazin, the dean of Department of Technological Management and Innovations, Vladimir Lukianov, the head of charity fund ‘’Neva angel’’ and Mikhail Krivonos, the head of charitable organization ‘’Raul’’ were among them.
Andrey Zlenko, the Director of the Social Design and Entrepreneurship Center underlines that the main aspect is that students from different countries have the same goal regardless of different approaches to social project development.
‘’We succeeded in setting up further cooperation with the participants of the festival. Zhejiang University and the University of California, Los Angeles will be the key co-organizers next year. The students are also looking forward to cooperating with each other. This collaboration will probably result in international social projects,’’ comments Mr. Zlenko.
Ulyana Malysheva
News portal editorial office