‘Dream and Move ahead in Your Field – HSE Will Always Be by Your Side’

On June 28, another university-wide graduation ceremony was held at the Higher School of Economics. This year, the celebration’s theme was the future and continuous progress. And the university’s graduates are the engines of this progress.

‘I hope that your future roads ahead will be both pleasant and glorious, and that they continue to bring you not only pleasure, but also satisfaction’, said Evgeny Yasin, Academic Supervisor at HSE, as he addressed this year’s graduates. ‘After all, when you're doing something significant, and it brings you satisfaction, you want to repeat it again and again. This is the feeling I seek by living and working at our university. I wish you joy, happiness and great satisfaction from life’.

HSE President Alexander Shokhin spoke about the fact that HSE graduates can find their calling in any chosen field, whether it be economics, business or politics. ‘It is difficult to go out into life in crisis, but I am certain that you will make every effort to improve life in this country’, he said.

‘Right now on the board of directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (note: Shokhin is also the president of this organization) there are two HSE graduates, I hope, over time, that there will be more of you. Good luck, and congratulations to your parents, who waited for you to become adults’.

‘Do not be afraid to dream, listen to yourself, set goals, and achieve them, and if you then want to change something, remember that for you, nothing is impossible’, said Tatyana Dubova, Director for Student and Alumni Affairs. ‘The main thing is to dream and move ahead in your field. HSE will always be by your side along this path’.

Andrei Gromkovskiy, a 2004 graduate of HSE’s Faculty of Applied Political Science (currently, Faculty of Social Sciences) and managing director of the video distribution division at 20th Century Fox, shared with graduates lessons that he had learned while going through a life crisis. ‘First, it is impossible to be happy only by taking while giving the world nothing in return. You can simply help a stranger, or pick up garbage thrown out by someone, or you can come teach at your alma mater and share your experience with young people. The main thing is not to count and not to think, but simply to live for others as much as for yourself.

‘Second, remain free inside. There will always be people who will tell you that what you think up will be impossible, but do not give up.                                                                    

‘And the third lesson is to keep your connection with HSE. HSE is what taught us to think broadly but to still be real professionals in the fields where we might become scientists, public officials, inventors, or the best moms and dads. I sincerely wish all of you love, to be free, and to not forget about HSE. HSE is a club, friends, and support!’

The HSE news service asked HSE’s 2016 graduates about the areas where they will be the ‘engine’.

Vera Avtaeva, Political Science

I would like to be a mover in education. After studying in our programme, I am certain that a number of serious problems can be solved by talking — with children, adults, and the elderly. You need to converse with people properly, and this is where I see the task of education. I am very glad that some of my classmates are already doing something in this area. For example, one of my classmates, Andrei Grechko, opened an educational club that prepares students for the Unified State Exam using the flipped classroom system.

 

Yevgeny Nesterenko, Master’s in Applied Economics

I think that first of all we need to move ourselves, our aspirations, and our hobbies, doing what brings pleasure, what motivates while still being considerate of those who are next to us, and to help develop those who may have fewer opportunities. Right now my job is in risk management; I stand guard over human risks. 

 

Anastasia Belyaeva, Philosophy

In the world of information technology, it is important to understand how the world works, and I think the philosophers are among the best at this. I would like to move progress in this area and am planning to continue my education by entering the Master's programme in Philosophical Anthropology.

 

Natalia Seslavinskaya, World Economics

Right now I don’t have any ambition to change the world. I would like to move in the direction of self-development: to continue my education in a Western Master’s programme in management and to become a professional in the field of personal finance management. But this will require more legal knowledge, so there is quite a lot of study ahead.

 

Artem Elivanov, Management

I would like to work in a large company in the field of IT, to work on interesting projects, and to face new challenges every day and solve them. Right now I am helping to launch a small start-up to create safety rings (in the event you are threatened, you click the ring and your relatives or the police receive a signal). While our start-up is focused on the US market, I hope that Russian law enforcement agencies will soon have the required information infrastructure for these products. 

 

Vladislav Gorbov, Master’s in Psychology in Business

I would like to move the music and advertising industries, more specifically, to develop and apply a variety of psychological methods and techniques in the music and the advertising industries. My diploma was devoted to the effectiveness of musical influence in advertising. Experimental psychology, music, and advertising are three areas at the intersection of which interesting breakthroughs and discoveries might occur; this is what fascinates me most right now.

 

Elizaveta Gainova, Master's in Applied Economics

The last two years I have been operating under the motto ‘We are opening the world and expanding horizons’. For me, classical mathematics (I graduated in Mechanics and Mathematics at Novosibirsk State University) and HSE’s approach to economics have become a new way for me to see the world, and to see the processes and connections that simply did not fall into my field of vision before. Accidentally finding myself in a film studio, I came into contact with the world of cinema and advertising, and now I want to develop in this direction. We produce fantasy films, and I hope people will like them. Culture and cinema are the best way to convey thoughts and ideas to people, and most importantly, they help people feel happy.