The students of the Liceum at the Syktyvkar State University named after Pitirim Sorokin became the winners of the first round and became the semi-finalists of the video contest on Russian-American history. They created a cartoon “Big man” about the great Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin. The cartoon was made by the sand animation technique.

The creativity team from Syktyvkar was represented by students of The Liceum at the Syktyvkar State University Anna Tolstova, Elizaveta Tsygankova, Lada Tutynina. Girls performed competitive work under the guidance of the teacher of the Syktyvkar State University Svetlana Tutynina. They decided to create a cartoon using the technique of sand animation.

PH International together with the US Embassy in Russia announced a competition for High school students which involved creating a video about a fellow countryman who went to the USA and made a significant contribution to American society, culture or business, or about a Russian subject, idea or invention that before still exist in US and serve as an example of a common history and culture.

According to the results of the competition, two winning teams will travel to the United States in July 2020, visit New York, Washington, San Francisco, Sitka and take part in the annual summer festival in Fort Ross.

The girls studied the biography of the scientist Pitirim Sorokin, in whose honor Syktyvkar State University is named. The great sociologist was born in Turia village, which situated in Komi Republic.

The organizers of the competition – PH International and the US Embassy in Moscow – thanked the team from Syktyvkar for the fact that the girls devoted a lot of time to studying the subject and creating a competitive video. They noted that they received 80 applications in 2020.

The presented video works of the teams were evaluated by a jury of 13 people, which included representatives of the Embassy, specialists in Russian-American relations, historians, employees of Fort Ross Conservancy and IT specialists.

Submitted videos and promotional videos were evaluated according to certain criteria. The complex of points set by each member of the jury made it possible to give each team an average score, which formed the rating of all teams.

12 semi-finalists were selected according to the terms of competition. They scored the most of points during absentee voting. They included a team from Syktyvkar. They had to have a Skype interview, during this interview two winning teams were identified. Unfortunately, the team from Syktyvkar didn’t reach the final, but their work was highly appreciated by the jury of competition. We wish them further creative success!