Charity and Community Projects
The role of a university goes beyond education and academics – it is a source of bright new ideas and projects that enrich the greater community. HSE holds an array of unique events at the university that are open to anyone. At the same time, HSE organizes discussions, presentations, and celebrations all over Moscow.
HSE Events
- Every week, for Professors’ Wednesdays, HSE’s Centre of Music Projects holds classical, jazz, and folklore concerts at the HSE Professors' Club (Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, 20).
- More Important than Politics was created in 2007 on the initiative of HSE Academic Supervisor Evgeny Yasin. Each month, famous writers, social commentators, film directors, academics and social figures discuss various topics related to culture, traditions, history and human values with HSE students and guests. In addition, individuals from HSE meet with students from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), Moscow State University, and the School-Studio. Along with Evgeny Yasin, Dmitry Bak, director of the State Literary Museum, also conducts the meetings.
- Documentary Fans is an educational project that introduces viewers to the lesser-studied sides of life in contemporary Russian and European society. Events are led by Grigory Libergal, vice president of the Guild of Documentary Film and Television.
HSE in the City
Major universities are not only involved in education and training; they also aim to change the environment around them. With this in mind, HSE is actively engaged in the development of Moscow through the University Open to the City programme. The programme organizes events that make the sciences easy to understand and interesting, while also providing positive and useful leisure activities to city residents. Events include lectures, master classes, exhibitions, festivals, and educational fairs.
HSE Lectures – The university’s best instructors hold open lectures in economics, sociology, history, philosophy, literature, psychology and engineering throughout Moscow at various locations, including Gorky Park in the summer and museums in the winter.
Charity Projects
Regular charity events are held at HSE. The university organizes charity festivals with the aim of introducing students to charity and volunteer activities. Charity and volunteer work bring together students, alumni and employees of the Higher School of Economics. Many projects that began as smaller student initiatives now have dozens of participants from HSE and beyond.
ICEF Outreach is a charitable organization created by students from HSE’s International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF). The team helps four orphanages in the Tver, Ryazan, Yaroslavl and Moscow regions. They receive money for trips and financial assistance through charity bake sales. ICEF Outreach participants also hold charity nights at HSE where talented students, professional singers and other famous individuals who actively partake in charity work perform. Open Your Eyes is another student volunteer organization that helps orphanages.
Best Buddies is a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-on-one friendships and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The mission of Best Buddies HSE is to provide an opportunity for students to be matched in one-on-one friendships with individuals who have intellectual disabilities.
Green HSE is one of the strongest movements at HSE. The team takes part important activities such as lowering energy consumption at the university and looking for heat leakages. The organization also provides HSE buildings with regular collection drives for electronics.
Charity organizations created by HSE alumni:
Hospital Clowns is an autonomous non-commercial organization that was the first and is so far the only professional organization in Russia that offers therapy to children through non-traditional therapeutic methods – clowns, games, artistic performances, and all around laughter. The organization was founded by Konstantin Sedov, a graduate of HSE’s Faculty of Law. Hospital Clowns is active in the hospitals of five regions in Russia. It holds international seminars for volunteers and has also organized a clown school.
Happiness Mosaic is a charitable foundation created by Anna Pushkova, a graduate of HSE’s Faculty of Management. The foundation supports orphanages, helps sick children and also carries out several programmes: Children and HIV, which operates in Moscow and Tatarstan; Experts of Charity, which provides training to volunteers as well as consulting support for NGO representatives; NuzhnaPomosh.ru, a charitable media project with the participation of over 70 journalists from leading national news sources; and Radi Glavnogo, which organizes meeting with famous creative people who have an interest in charity projects.
Recycle was cofounded by Elena Barysheva, graduate of HSE Faculty of Political Science. The project began as an online journal about living in an environmentally-friendly way in the city, but after less than a year the scope of its activities expanded. Now its staff members organize recycling collection points, give lectures at large companies, and battle the myth that sustainability always has a tinge of craziness.
Detskiye Serdtsa is charitable foundation, which collects funds for children in need of heart surgery. It was founded by Katya Bermant, HSE graduate, who is also co-founder of the Wse Wmeste charitable assembly.