Three Years of the “Adapters” Public Institute

14 March 2018 University life 1914

On February 16, the Adapters Public Institute celebrates its third birthday. One of the best-known among and well-liked by the students of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, the project was launched exactly three years ago. Our article tells about how it all started and how the adapters work.

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute

Today, the “Adapters” is a high-scale project with a well-set management structure and more than 450 activists from all institutes taking part in it. The main activity of the organization is adaptation of freshmen and their engagement into the student life. Adapters are students of senior grades with proactive approaches to life, ready to share their experience and answer questions, and help to find ways to resolve any students’ issues. They are always staying in touch with their groups and can come up with a friendly advice at any time.

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute

The architect of the idea and the first leader of the “Adapters” PI was then yet a 3rd-grade student of the Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE) Nickolay BOLSHAKOV. Together with other activists, Nickolay made his first and major input into the project: he gave the opportunities for many students to realize their potentials and become an important part of the Polytechnic life.

“We owe the idea of establishing the “Adapters” to the Petrozavodsk State University where a similar organization has been operating for about ten years. As with many major Polytechnic students’ projects, it all started at the auditorium 349 of the 1st educational building,” Nickolay BOLSHAKOV is telling about the first steps on the way of establishing the public institute. “Along with my future deputy Andrey Novikov, Chair of the Student Union Maxim Pasholikov, and Artyom Maryukhta we stated the principles, goals, and objectives of the “Adapters.” Of course, the most important thing for us had always been working with students and strengthening of the Polytechnic community. And, despite the fact that adapters had already existed at other universities, in the realities of our university we had to do everything from the scratch: as in any other matter, you cannot just replicate the model.”

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute

As long as the project of the kind was established at Polytechnic for the first ever time, it was not enough just to bring together active and interested folks. Coaching them was an important and inextricable part. The leaders tried to give the activists a comprehensive vision of various students’ activities and the youth policies as a whole. We had held lectures and practical studies on proper holding trainings, student associations, university branding, social support, military and patriotic education, safety, and many other things.

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute
Образовательные смены для адаптеров проходят в Южном лагере

One of the main goals of the training has always been to make adapters very well-informed about the most important aspects of student life, ready to answer any questions of the freshmen. Besides this, expanding their own vision during the training course, adapters would find interesting spheres of activists for themselves and continued to develop in that direction.

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute

The major debut event for the adapters took place on August 30-31 and September 1 of 2015. The first experience of coordinating major groups of freshmen helped our guys to correct their further actions: they came to some conclusions, took into consideration all comments, and already in 2016 and 2017, organization of the Days of Knowledge at Polytechnic had very much improved. Since then, the project started to gain momentum; presently, adapters are not limited with just helping freshmen. During the entire year, they take part in most of the major university events, work with volunteers and coordinators, and organize their own public and environmental actions. Besides the mass cultural events, they also develop in the sphere of working with high school students, alumni, and international students.

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute
Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute

In 2018, the “Adapters” Public Institute is developing rapidly under the command of the 4th grade ICE student Artyom POLUBEDOV. The new leader is quite successful in leading the adapters to the goals set and fulfilling the designed tasks, which include professional orientation and international activities of the university, deepening cooperation with the university in various aspects - from facilitating enhancement of the quality of education and up to the development of the social facilitation complex, reinstitution of the monitors corpus, and bringing it to a new qualitative level. 

Three Years of the Adapters Public Institute
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