The year 2020 has been quite unusual. Despite the odds, ITMO University’s Solution Chemistry of Advanced Materials and Technology (SCAMT) Institute had recently organized a workshop on 3D bioprinting called BioPrint and I being placed in a different country had to attend it completely online. But in no way was the workshop unidirectional. All of us got the opportunity to interact with the scientists and ask them questions about their research. I felt I was a part of the event throughout even though physically I was miles away.
Breathe in, the first border: Russian border control officers suspiciously gaze at my red passport; the second border: European border control officers ask about the purpose of my visit; the third border: German police are smiling; breathe out.
It is often said that hard skills help you get an interview but soft skills help you get and keep a job! In today’s world, having great soft skills is a must. The world is changing and so is the job sector. The highly competitive nature of the market has made it mandatory for an individual to have a good command over their soft skills, as quite often they outweigh the hard ones. As a result, it is being incorporated into the curriculum of almost every university nowadays. And ITMO University has its own unique way of doing it
All ITMO students come from different countries and cities. We all travel from campus to campus, from dormitories to lessons, from meetings to lectures. For example, I am a participant of many activities at the university. They all are located in different places and sometimes even in opposite parts of St. Petersburg. Very often I hear questions about how I can do everything. There is a simple answer — coworkings!
First of all, let’s define motivation. What is it? A feeling? An action? Or maybe something else… Basically, it is a process that induces action aimed at satisfying needs. It is a reason why a person does concrete actions, the psychophysiological process that controls human behavior, sets its direction. Motivation (motivation) is at the heart of all the actions we do. Progress is impossible without motivation. It is this feeling that allows you to overcome laziness and inertia in relation to the surrounding reality and yourself. Where there is no motivation, there is no progress, no movement.
"It's fine to decide not to decide about something. You just need a decide-not-to-decide system to get it off your mind" - David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free-Productivity.
Yesterday my old grandmother asked me to show her my gradebook. Just imagine my explanations about online points, electronic documents, and no paper at all. In the end of our conversation, she told me that my stories are the same with sci-fi books about future which she had read in her childhood. So ITMO University shows us that we live in the future!
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have moved back home. Living with your parents again has its advantages — but it also brings with it some challenges and potential for conflict.
"You are going to one of the most beautiful and charming cities in the world" this phrase got stuck in my mind as I was telling my Russian language teacher back in Syria that I received the results for the scholarship and I was accepted at ITMO in St. Petersburg.
My experience volunteering for the Ars Electronica festival held in early September at ITMO's newly-opened art residence.
