The XIX World Festival of Youth and Students

From October 14 to October 22, 2017, the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students was held, which had representatives from all subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as delegates from more than 180 countries around the world, with the total number of participants passing the mark of 20,000, not to mention more than 5000 people volunteers. The festival was also attended by 3 students of m "Socioeconomic And Political Development Of Modern Asia" HSE: Anna Sidorova, Nina Merten and Roman Fainshmidt.

The festival was opened by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, and at numerous sessions there were ministers and politicians like I. Shuvalov, T. Golikova, S. Glazyev, M. Oreshkin, S. Lavrov and a number of other prominent figures of the modern foreign and domestic policy of the country.

It should be noted that the program for young people and students was extremely diverse and was divided, first of all, into sports and cultural events, business games, master classes and discussion platforms on international relations, public administration, economic development, professional growth and so on.. At the same time, each of the events was marked by the presence of important guests from Russia or from abroad: for example, S. Bezrukov and F. Bondarchuk attended film screenings, as well as stars from Russian, Korean and European music, including One Republic, Morandi, BAIKAL, Quest Pistols and others.

Meanwhile, the students of the program not only visited a number of discussions and business games, but also presented their projects at the stand of the Moscow region, and also managed to establish friendly relations with delegates from the countries of Asia so as to discuss joint projects and cooperation in the future.

Anna Sidorova:

Being at the festival, I sticked to the following strategy: in the first half of the day, I tried to move out from the hotel to events alone, because if you go with your friends, you will fully limit yourself to communicating specifically with these people, and when you are alone, you are completely open to new acquaintances and communications with the participants and volunteers. On the way to the media center building, where the main master classes and lectures were held, people from all over the world met with me, and I realized that even when I went alone to the Olympic Park, I was not alone at all, I was with all these people, together with the whole planet: I learned unique stories of the delegates’ life, shared the features of my life's path, and so we exchanged pieces of ourselves with each other, what created a unique atmosphere of the festival itself. And despite the fact that we all are from different cities and countries, representatives of different races, religions, ideologies, each of us has our own worldview and the idea of ​​hosting the festival of Russia, we were united by one goal: having understood the fact that we are all - people of one planet, and it is our future that depends on us, we must achieve peace in the whole world and strive to do everything possible to develop the potential of each country, but first of all, each of us needs to create our way of life so as not only to do no harm to the world around us, but also make it better.

Nina Merten:

The WFYS has become an amazing event for me! I was part of the "New Media" (Youth Media Center) section and was responsible for one of the project groups in the Creative Media Lab (project # Hipobass). Project # Hipobass is a unique mobile studio that worked at the festival every day. We thoroughly worked out the concept, inviting participants from different countries to speak on our airs, taught foreign languages, had fun under incendiary music and conducted roundelays with "streams". Every day we gathered about 1000 participants on our broadcasts.

The educational program in my stream was outstandingly rich: representatives of the media, creative agencies, popular TV presenters, bloggers - all came to share their experience. It was very interesting to listen to them during the morning lectures, and after dinner we organized workshops and master classes where we performed various assignments, thought out commercials, thought about how to cover sensitive topics in the media, and designed the image of the media of the future.

One of the most vivid memories was the closing ceremony of the festival. Since there were not enough tickets for everyone, there were several tickets for each section, and they rewarded the participants who showed their best in the projects. I learned how to go to the ceremony 20 minutes before the start, and I was at that moment outside the Olympic Park. So, I had to run all the way through the whole territory (and it was 50 minutes by feet) to my cherished goal. How much I was glad that I had that time! The energy of the hall, the famous songs, the joint dances and tears on the last video... Everything passed, but the festival, the emotions, the smiles and the people we met forever will remain in our hearts!

The festival for us became one of the brightest events in life that helped not only to find new friends and acquaintances from all parts of our planet, but also to realize the importance of each of us in maintaining and preserving the vital conditions for the existence of mankind and the coexistence of all life on the Earth. Young people are the most active part of the population, possessing such a volume of energy and minds that can bring the planet to a qualitatively new level: the development of innovations and technologies, the development and use of alternative energy sources, the development of medicine for incurable diseases, the disclosure of the secrets of the universe, the use of atomic energy in peaceful goals and etc. That is why young people, as the engine of progress, are placed with hope and considerable responsibility.