Student from Belarus Viktoria Kukhmar About Her Exchange Studies at the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology
At her home university, Viktoria is studying in the Bachelor's degree program ''Psychological and Pedagogical Education'', specialty ''Preschool Education'', and in the spring semester of the 2023/24 academic year at PetrSU, she chose to study the courses “Theories of Personality Development”, “Literary Education of Preschool Children”, “Art Therapy and Art Pedagogy”, “School of Leader Skills”, which she studies together with students of 732 group (Bachelor's degree program ''Psychological and pedagogical education'', specialty ''Teacher-psychologist of preschool education'').
Viktoria describes her first impressions of Karelia and studying at PetrSU:
“The offer to study as an exchange student came unexpectedly, but I immediately accepted it as a chance to go on a new, slightly larger than usual journey, getting to know a new place, its history and traditions, its culture and the people of this culture. It was also a chance to experience differences in the educational field.
The preparation was successful, and now I am a student at PetrSU. New disciplines, new teachers, classmates. Classes always take on an unusual form, and sometimes even the location of this lesson may not be a standard classroom, but the National Library, which helps to diversify the lives of students and immerse them in a different atmosphere. The city also affably showed all its best sides. I managed to visit the winter festival ''Hyperborea 2024'' and admired the ice and snow sculptures on the Onega embankment.
It’s still too early to draw conclusions about this trip, but now I can say with confidence that my expectations about the trip were fully justified. I touched the rich experience of the teachers, felt the friendliness of the people around me, and the spiritual fullness of the city.
