Overcoming Challenges as a Team: Students of the School of Foreign Languages Present Innovative Projects for Companies
Following an established tradition, the HSE School of Foreign Languages held a pre-New Year poster session, during which fourth-year undergraduate students of the Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication programme defended their practice-oriented projects. The assessment panel included representatives of major companies and organisations. Working together with HSE students, they shared their professional experience, skills, and expertise.
‘Teamwork is an essential part of professional training,’ said Ekaterina Kolesnikova, Head of the HSE School of Foreign Languages. ‘Over the course of four years, students develop various competencies and prepare themselves for successful employment in the future, but it is also important to understand how to work effectively in a team.’ According to her, this is always a challenge and the path is not always easy, but the experience gained is invaluable.
A total of 45 projects were presented during the defence. The work was assessed by representatives of various companies and organisations, including Prosveshcheniye Publishing House, Star Talk School of Foreign Languages, Kaspersky Lab, UFirst English School, and others.
Anna Kim’s student team developed the project ‘Event by Event. Market Intelligence Briefs and Export Potential by Country’ for ITE Group. ‘It was carried out together with a marketing team based in Dubai, and we worked on a project for the international market,’ Anna Kim explained. ‘We studied which countries could become our new partners in the event industry and whom we could attract.’ As she noted, the experience was both useful and important, though the work was quite challenging, as much had to be learned from scratch—'finding information, knowing where to look for it, how to apply it and how to present it.’
The project ‘Overview of Digital Bank’s Structure Based on the T-Bank (ex-Tinkoff) Example,’ developed by Polina Astafyeva’s team, was carried out in cooperation with the company MySearch. During the project, the students created a visualisation of T-Bank, showing how the organisation is structured and how its internal hierarchy and connections function.
‘I think most of the tasks set were successfully completed, and we gained new knowledge and skills. It was useful both for us and for the client, because the project was quite large-scale and can help the company develop further,’ Polina Astafyeva believes.
The project by Marika Tkeshelashvili’s team focused on developing a curriculum plan for 68 lessons for beginner-level learners of Chinese. ‘We used the textbook Happy Chinese, Parts One and Two, as a basis. We have already started implementing one of the curricula at a school, and the students are successfully using all the materials we provided,’ Marika Tkeshelashvili shared.
‘The projects were very diverse, and that is exactly where their value lies—when there are no identical clients, tasks, or projects,’ said Anastasia Danilova, Director of the HSE Centre for Career Management and Corporate Culture. ‘It allows students to see the world more broadly. They receive important feedback and gain experience in a safe environment—the university. It is better to do this here than somewhere else, where the costs of mistakes might be much higher.’
‘Students learn how to present themselves in public and speak in front of an audience. It is important to overcome this barrier and present a project clearly and convincingly so that it is remembered and receives a high evaluation,’ noted Nadezhda Shuvalova from Prosveshcheniye Publishing House. ‘In fact, this is an excellent basis for identifying talented students who are genuinely motivated and want to do something useful for companies or organisations. It is also a good opportunity for future internships.’
‘Communicating with educational institutions and students themselves is very good practice when it comes to selecting specialists for the future,’ believes Natalia Zheleznyak from PROMT. ‘It is one thing to see a CV on a job website and have no idea what kind of person is behind it, and quite another to meet them in person, especially in a working environment and under different conditions. In our company, we practise inviting students we have previously worked with.’
‘I really liked the poster session; I have been taking part in it for several years now,’ said Tatyana Lobok, Deputy Head of the HSE Centre for Educational Model Design. ‘The students’ language skills are at a very good level. They not only present their projects clearly but also answer questions confidently and navigate them well. We liked the fact that the students tackled a wide range of tasks: some were research-based, others very practical—such as writing an article or creating a guide. The students put in a great deal of effort, and the results are of a high standard.’
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