The 5th anniversary graduation ceremony of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation

On July 3, the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation held the most important event of the year – a solemn ceremony of awarding diplomas to MA students who now have the full right to call themselves Masters of Linguistics! This graduation is special for two reasons: firstly, this is the 5th graduation of the School, which is, in fact, its small anniversary and, of course, an occasion for pride; secondly, this year we’ve awarded diplomas to our first group of translation students who undertook the programme “Theory and Practice of Communication in Professional Communication”, which we are also very proud of. The ceremony took place in the ASU main building: the guests were shown new classrooms for simultaneous interpretation and translation of the School in the academic laboratory building. Then, they were led to the assembly hall, where Olga Egorova, the Director of the School, told about achievements of the School and its graduates in the last academic year and invited the guests to say welcoming words to the newly-qualified Masters. Speaking of guests: Vladimir Goncharenko, the Director of the Department of Linguistic Support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, came to Astrakhan intentionally to participate in the graduation ceremony. He is very interested in the development of our School and noted the high level of training interpreters and translators in the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation. The Department of Linguistic Support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has been actively supporting the training of our MA students for 5 years, providing the opportunity to organize their traineeships in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, and also sending their leading experts for giving master classes on interpretation and translation in Astrakhan. We are extremely grateful for that and we hope for further fruitful cooperation.
In addition, the ceremony was attended by Galina Zoteeva, the Deputy Chairman of the Astrakhan Region and Minister of Culture and Tourism, Denis Afanasyev, Minister of International and Foreign Economic Relations of the Astrakhan Region, Behrouz Muhtari, the Attaché of the Consulate General of the Republic of Iran in the Astrakhan Region and Expert on Economic and Cultural Affairs, Askhat Syzdykov, the Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astrakhan, Adalyat Guseynov, the Chairman of the Astrakhan branch of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress and Oleg Kolomin, the Head of the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in Astrakhan. The ASU administration was represented by Nikolay Khurchak, Vice-Rector for International Relations.
The ceremony participants emphasized the importance of the School development for the Astrakhan region and for Russia as a whole and the Caspian region, expressed gratitude for the support provided by the School in holding international events in our city, and for constant participation of MA students as volunteer interpreters at different-level conferences and fora. Of course, they also wished luck and smooth cruising in the “sea of interpreting and translation” to our Masters, but as noted by Vladimir Goncharenko, an interpreter doesn’t have the right to “be at sea” in the work, so let’s say “way to go”!

Photo: ASU TV Media Centre