2013 SU Update: Volunteers selected for Internship at 2011 SU in Shenzhen

KAZAN – A short list of 30 volunteers to travel to the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen was revealed on May 10th. Among the lucky ones there are young people from Vladivostok, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Nevinnomysk, Ryazan, Saratov, Tyumen, Elista, Yakutsk and Kazan. Half of the selected volunteers are from Tatarstan.

All in all, the contest organized by the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate under the auspices of Tatarstan’s Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism saw 63 applications submitted from the Republic of Tatarstan and 59 applications from other Russian regions.

120 applicants were shortlisted for the final stage, out of which 30 winners were selected. According to the Contest OC executive secretary, Kazan 2013 Volunteer Department representative Tatyana Nikulina, the essential condition of the Shenzhen 2011 volunteer selection program was an excellent command of both English and Chinese. ‘The Contest’s Organizing Committee had a hard choice to make. Despite high demands on language proficiency, all the applicants successfully passed interviews. I’m confident that those who will travel to China will create a good image of the Russian volunteer movement and assist the Shenzhen 2011 Organizing Committee with staging the University Games at the highest possible level’, she summed up.

One of the Contest’s applicants, Elvira Fattakhova, a Tatar State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University graduate, emphasized that an internship to Shenzhen was to become a huge experience for any volunteer. ‘I miss China very much. A chance to embrace this atmosphere, become part of such a grand sporting event like the Universiade is a truly exciting and important experience for me’, she confessed.

The final short list was drawn up based on interviews of successful applicants held in English and Chinese. While talking to the candidates, the interview panel assessed their language proficiency, level of motivation for the internship at the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, and also tested their knowledge of the 2013 Summer Universiade’s trivia.

Prior to their trip to Shenzhen, the winners will take part in the International Youth Volunteer Camp Towards the Universiade that is scheduled to be held on July 3-8.

While taking their internship in Shenzhen, Russian volunteers will be involved in accommodation management at the Universiade Village, engage in volunteer activities at one of the largest sports venues of the 2011 Summer Universiade and study volunteer coordination in a range of different fields.

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate)