Sport for boosting one’s willpower

Anna is a professional figure skater – she started her sports career when she was four in Kurgan where she was born. She devoted herself to this activity for 12 years and then was titled with the Candidate for Master of Sport. She also gained experience in coaching.

Anna managed to show her skills during a performance, which was a part of the contest. Anna chose roller skating, as this sport correlates with ice skating. All members of the jury gave her the highest scores.

Anna was already a successful sportswomen while she was still in high-school but she had to choose between focusing on sports or studying and decided to focus on her studies. The next decision she had to make was choosing a university. According to Anna, she found out about ITMO by chance.

Studying at ITMO

In high school, Anna studied in a class with an intensive philological program – she took part in essay competitions and didn’t think about studying at a technical university. One of Anna’s friends who planned to enroll at ITMO talked to her about the university. Then Anna’s father, who was one of the developers of the computer-aided design programs Kompas 3D said that the company appreciates high-skilled experts who graduated from ITMO University. According to Anna Grigorieva, this convinced her to choose ITMO. As of now, she studies at the Department of Engineering and Computer Graphics. The name of her educational program is information systems and technologies in the field of design.

“I never wanted to limit myself to only technical disciplines. That is why I decided to focus on the development of games and applications – it requires creativity. I studied many non-technical disciplines such as painting, history of art, 3D modelling, graphic, photography techniques and visual perception,” shares Anna.

Plans for the future

Anna is interested in application of her knowledge to real projects rather than fundamental science. She is going to devote herself to developing online services. She also wants to try to serve as a critic and reviewer – she would like to evaluate various art work.

During her first and second years at ITMO Anna paid a lot of attention to her studies. She even abandoned sport activities.

“From the very beginning of my student life I spent all my time studying. There were many events and activities I missed out on due to that, for example, the Freshmen Festival, ITMO Spring and others. When I was a second-year student I decided to start doing something else and applied to Miss ITMO. I wanted to gain new impressions by taking part in it,” said Anna.

Having taken part in the contest Anna decided to contribute to social activities of the university. Now she focuses not only on participating, but also on being an organizer. She will be one of the organizers of the Mister ITMO contest, which will take place next winter.

Beauty pageants are not for smart people

Anna believes that beauty contests are pointless. However, she took part in Miss ITMO, as this contest is something totally different – it doesn’t aim at judging the physical attributes of female participants. Despite the fact that it includes a fancy-dress competition, the judges pay attention to acting skills and style of the participants.

About the victory

“Some girls participate so as to win and receive a winner’s crown. As for me, I strived to have fun! It seems that a formula for success is to feel relaxed, focus on positive emotions and forget about competing,” commented Anna Grigorieva.

Miss ITMO and Mister ITMO are annual competitions that aim to choose the best representative of the university. Their participants prepare for two months so as to show their skills in sport and intellectual contests and present their performance at a talent show.