Open badminton championship of Mykolaivska oblast among veterans and amateurs of sport took place on September 7-10. The instructor of the Foreign languages department Oksana Hladchenko and the instructor of the Physical Education department Antonina Siryk took the golden medal in the age category 45+ and the third place in the age category 20+. And Oksana alone took the silver medal in her age category. We wish our sportsmen further achievements.

The instructor of the Foreign languages department Svitlana Mikhno took part in the Global International Scientific Analytical Project provided by International Academy of Science and Higher Education. She prepared her research for the II stage of the championship in Educational sciences National Research Analytics Championship of Ukraine held from June 23 till June 29, 2017 in London (UK). Branch: Educational sciences – "Innovative processes in education’’.

One more initiative of the Foreign languages department is English Day Summer Camp held by Benjamin Jeoffrey Stewart at Sumy State University (June 14-21). The participants of the camp explored the following themes through a mix of short lectures, activities, and discussions:

• Wednesday, June 14th: Opening Ceremony, International Activity Day
• Thursday, June 15th: American Culture
• Friday, June 16th: Volunteering / Civic Activism
• Monday, June 19th: Leadership and Success!
• Tuesday, June 20th: Quest / Sports Day
• Wednesday, June 21st: Ukrainian University Life, Closing Ceremony

We thank Benjamin and other speakers of this camp for interesting speeches and discussions: students Daryna Denysenko, Andrii Kryshtop, Kateryna Halustian, Dmytro Shvachko, an instructor Alla Mykolaivna Diadechko, Peace Corps volunteers Omar Bartos, Benjamin Stewart and Jada, EVS Volunteer from Center for European Initiatives Ruben Van Der Mark, an artist Lily Kavliuk, a user interface designer Artem Oberland and others. 

Seniour instructor of the Foreign languages department Nina Maliovana participated in the training “Internationalisation as a Tool to Develop the Leadership Potential of a University” which was held under the project by TEMPUS “Education for Leadership, Intelligence and Talent Evolution ELITE”.  The event took part at the Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv) and the following topics were covered:

• Internationalisation of Higher Education and Leadership;
• Complex Strategy of the Internationalization of a University; Key Principles of the Development and Self-evaluation of the Quality of its Implementation;
• Implementation of the Programmes on Dual Joint Degrees: World Experience.

Nina Maliovana underlined that she came back with new ideas to be implemented while teaching English.

Over the course of five days in August, SSU English Teacher Ben Stewart led an English-language summer camp for 53 Ukrainian children outside of Kurhan.  The camp itself, known as Camp EXCITE, was a longstanding tradition in the Sumy region, but had been inactive since the evacuation in 2013.  Benjamin and fellow PCV Lauren Grubbs wrote a grant to finance the camp's revival, and with the help of the Camp's former director, Olga Vasilyevna Prihodko, made Camp EXCITE a reality once again.  The camp included lessons on Volunteerism, Civic Activism, and Leadership, while also mixing in specialized mini-master classes on such subjects as photography, American slang, embroidery, Diversity in the USA, Introductory Chinese, and much more.  The Camp was staffed by 8 American Peace Corps Volunteers, 2 EVS Volunteers (SVETLANA: This stands for European Volunteer Services), 11 Ukrainians, and supported by Sumy's Center for Euroinitiatives.

The Foreign languages department actively cooperates with the secondary schools of Sumy. It includes participation in the “Days of Science” at Sumy State University, visits to schools in the project on Intercultural Commuication and English Day Summer Camp. This activity facilitates the popularity of Sumy State University among school children and draws attention to the necessity of learning a foreign language (English). We welcome you to join our initiatives.

On June, 7 the instructors of the Foreign languages department participated in the training dedicated to Teambuilding. The training was supported by the Trade union of Sumy State University and held by the psychologist Liudmyla Kolisnyk. The training aims at the development of the skills of cooperation, empowering the communication in a team, identifying strong and weak sides of the participants and distribution of roles, analyzing the process of decision making. The instructors of the department liked this experience, found out their roles in the team, managed to solve some tasks successfully in the process of joint work. Some of them took part in the psychological training for the first time and would like to do that again. We consider strong team to be the reason for the success of the organization.

The Foreign languages department initiated the program of academic mobility to France from May 01 to May 12, 2017. Its aim is to get certification training at Université Lumière Lyon 2, France. The theme of the program is Intercultural Communication. The instructors Tetiana Aleksakhina, Natalia Usenko and Viktoria Kurochkina presented the activity of Sumy State University in terms of innovative technologies in teaching foreign languages. A postgraduate student Kostiantyn Zavrazhny, students and high school children with the instructors had lectures in French, History of University, Intercultural Communication and took part in trainings and seminars. The activity of the program also included negotiating on further cooperation.

Video on the visit can be found by this link - https://youtu.be/NCvNygpnt3I

Svitlana Mikhno, instructor of Foreign languages department

The representatives of the Foreign languages department and the Language Centre of Sumy State University had a business trip to Lviv with the aim to get acquainted with the work of the similar departments, especially the Centre of English Academic Communication at Ivan Franko National University. Its head Tetiana Yakhontova is one of the leading specialists in this field, a professor, Doctor of Philology Sciences, the participant of the IREX and Fulbright programmes.

Tetiana gave information on the activity of her Centre, peculiarities of teaching written English communication, particularly analytical writing in academic and scientific fields, to masters, postgraduate students and specialists of diverse majors. In their turn, the head of the Foreign languages department Halyna Lytvynenko and the director of the Language Centre at Sumy State University Svitlana Zolotova shared the experience of organizing independent and extracurricular activity with the help of the Language Centre, cooperation with companies and enterprises of Sumy, using interactive methods of teaching English.

The cooperation between two centres was also considered, outlining the possible benefits for the students and instructors of Lviv and Sumy universities.

BUSINESS TRIP TO LVIV UNIVERSITIES

The instructor of Foreign languages department Alla Diadechko had an opportunity to master her English language speaking in Great Britain. Being invited by the Windzor Education Group she not only saw a lot of places of interest, but also managed to discuss the peculiarities of studying process with British representatives of higher educational institutions.