My Experience as a Guest Lecturer and Speaker in Different Countries

As a student of the Innovation Entrepreneurship Master's program at ITMO University, I was presented with various opportunities to cooperate with various universities.

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The first was with the Kharazmi University of Iran, where I was invited to give a webinar titled Creation of Value: Entrepreneurship, which was followed by several seminars on innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainable innovation, and leadership. I invited my friends from the Master's program, Arslan Hudaygulyyev, Stanislav Klimenko, and Gulom Sherkulov, to participate as speakers and represent ITMO. Another friend of mine, PhD student at ITMO Subhrajit Barua,presented the topic Trends in Biotechnology. Also present at the event was the Vice-Chancellor of the Areandina University, Martha Castellanos, who spoke about the challenges of higher education, as well as representatives of Jilin University of International Studies (JISU), with a lecture on innovation in education.

All this was thanks to Dr. Omid Ebadati, the director of the Bureau of International Scientific Cooperation and Dr. Ali Tahaei, the Head of the Office for Development of International Cooperation at Kharazmi University, with whom we continue to work on international cooperation together with JISU and Areandina University. I also stay in touch with the officials responsible for international cooperations at JISU, the director of International Relations Song, Yang, Xiaomei and Professor Mo Zhao.

Image courtesy of the author
Image courtesy of the author

The second time I represented ITMO as a guest professor was with the Areandina University of Colombia. In one of the classes of the International Management course, I taught the importance of emotions during negotiations and conflict management. For this opportunity, I would like to thank Professors Yusney Porras and Edgar Mesa, Dean Fernando Telléz, Director Diego Neira, Director of International Relations Adriana Neira, as well as Vice Chancellor Martha Castellanos and Chancellor Jorge Leonardo Valencia.

However, all this cooperation began in the year 2022, at a workshop held for the students of the National University of Ucayali, Peru where Professor Edgar Mesa of the Areandina University gave talked about entrepreneurship. Also present there were representatives of the University Kharazmi, Jilin University of International Studies, and my friend Daria Melnikova from ITMO University, where she explained the importance of innovation in entrepreneurship. This event was organized by the Director of Business Development, Dr. Héctor Arbildo Paredes, Vice-Rector for Research Dr. Edgar Díaz Zuñiga, Academic Vice-Rector Dr. Julio Cesar Pastor Segura, and Rector Dr. Edgardo Braúl Gomero from National Ucayali University.

This experience becomes interesting when each student from each country gives an opinion according to their culture and vision and it becomes a sharing session, where all the students offer their points of points and concepts, since each country has a different idea on the topic of innovation. This makes for a more dynamic class, where everyone participated and said "but in my country, we do this and this".

I always used to say that my world is not Colombia or Peru, but my world is all the countries because we must build bridges and not walls. With this experience, I was able to confirm that. Being a teacher in other countries allows you to understand new ideas and adapt to new types of teaching and develop talents of students from other parts of the world allowing the class to be a 1×1, which is a strategy where the student is part of the class and becomes familiar and thus all students remain active in class.

I thank my Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations of ITMO University for all their support, all the staff of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, the Cultural Section of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Lima, Peru for their trust, and my family.

Master's student, Innovation Entrepreneurship