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Find opportunities that are right for you to continue your education outside your home country.
© 2024 Freedom Degree
Freedom Degree, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. © 2024 | Powered by Strapi
Aug 28, 2024
Experience of Georgy Kalakutskii (Kaunas University of Technology, Bard College Berlin)
We talked to Georgy Kalakutskii, former project manager and co-founder of "theplan" project, an organization helping refugees from Ukraine find jobs in Europe, and now a fundraiser for the LGBTQ+ group “Coming Out”.
Egor did not request assistance from Freedom Degree and was not a student of our project, but gladly agreed to talk about his life and studies in Lithuania for our blog. Over the past few years, Egor has accumulated a respectable experience of studying in different places. In Russia, Egor studied urban studies at "Shaninka", in Lithuania he studied at Kaunas University of Technology, and very soon he will start studying at Bard College in Berlin.
Volodya, hi! Before the full-scale invasion, I studied at "Shaninka" (Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences), in urban studies. I did it with great pleasure, because I studied in the Liberal Arts program. Accordingly, I studied in English, I had incredible, brilliant teachers. It was all a great pleasure until February 24, 2022, and then I made the decision to leave Russia.
Just a couple of months ago, all of my classmates there defended themselves, and I, therefore, doing exactly the opposite. Now I'm back, having just finished my second year of my bachelor's degree.
As for the programs, there I was doing urban studies, and here in Lithuania I'm doing public administration. It is a double degree program between Kaunas University of Technology and the University of Central Florida. I was attracted to it, first of all, because of the American diploma and I found it interesting to have an opportunity to study on exchange in the USA for a relatively low tuition fee.
To be precise, my specialty is called public governance and non-profit management. I fell in love with urban studies during my time at Shaninka. I wanted to return to this field, but I could not afford it - everywhere in Europe it is very expensive to study urban studies. I decided that I would take a bachelor's degree as a basic course and then look for a Master's degree in urban studies to make up for what I missed.
Actually, the decision to move from Russia was quite easy, because it concerned security and my political identity. After all, the damage could be quite disproportionate, so I didn't want to take any risks. And I made the decision to leave quite quickly. I chose Lithuania for political reasons. I wanted that when I chose a country to live and study in, my dear classmates and people on the streets of a new city would not be surprised by my decision, but on the contrary, they would agree with me, support me, understand why I decided to leave Russia and why I support Ukraine so much. And in the Baltic States, of course, this was to be expected from people - and so it happened. I had to choose between Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and in the end I was very satisfied from this political point of view.
And here, it would seem, I begin to contradict myself, because now I am making a transfer to Germany, to Bard College Berlin. But I still made a decision in terms of my educational opportunities - it became clear that I could afford to study at a slightly higher level. I really missed everything that I had seen and felt at Shaninka in terms of the educational process. I knew Bard as a good university. I didn't really want to go to the US because my whole life is tied to Europe: both work and activism. Bard was the only place I tried to transfer to. They accepted me and even gave me some money, for which I am extremely grateful, and I will start studying there in September.
I will say that I absolutely fell in love with the local community and I'm a huge fan of Kaunas, I think it's probably the first city where I really started to live “like a human being”. Maybe it's due to my age, but I really felt a part of the society, the local community.
At first I thought that I would have nothing to do in Kaunas, but no, in fact, thanks to the size of the city I had a great opportunity to feel the people around me and to know better those who are close to you. I've used this phrase many times: the whole city of Kaunas is saturated with networks of connections and I feel incredibly happy when I realize that I'm with all of this together, connected to all of it. From labor unions, book clubs, dinners together, cafes and so on. It all adds up to some very cool picture that, again, I've never experienced before.
And it is an absolutely priceless experience that is now always with me. I'm a little scared to move, even though I know the reasons why I'm doing it, I'm still afraid I'll never have that experience again. It adds to my lyrical mood right now.
As for personal comfort, of course I'm feeling much better, here, getting from point to point is usually a 15 minute walk. I use public transportation a couple of times a week, I walk most of the time and so I can afford a slightly more relaxed life. More free time, more walking, more socializing with my acquaintances and friends. I rent my room for 300 euros a month. For Kaunas it is a lot, but it seems reasonable to me. I have a salary, I feel quite comfortable. Of course, it is also a privilege when I hear from my friends in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam about the difficulties they have to face when looking for a place to live. But here it was almost the first ad from the website and I just came, looked at the apartment, shook hands and signed the contract.
As for education. It is important to understand that we are talking about specific universities and by no means countries, because, frankly speaking, before entering "Shaninka" I was sure that the Russian educational system was completely outdated and there was no reason to study there. But I chose it and I was not mistaken - I had a lot of seminars, almost no lectures, a lot of independent work, a lot of reading, even more writing, and I think this is very important, especially at the undergraduate level, when there is room for discussion and trying things out for yourself. That's why I'm also transferring to Bard in Berlin, because I think I really miss this liberal arts system.
I have such a standard suggestion that I give my friends from different countries an opportunity to walk around Kaunas with my tour. And once during such a walk my friend told me about her doubts about whether she wants to continue her education at all. She seems to want to and she misses the academy very much, but at the same time it seems to her that it will not correspond to the level of some big status institutions.
And I'm sorry to hear that every time. I'm sure if you think that, you're probably the smartest, absolutely marvelous person who will fit perfectly into the educational system. It seems that nowadays in education there is a demand for your experience, for your personality, for your interests, not only for theoretical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge can absolutely be caught up if you need to. You probably know quite a lot. So I just want to wish you confidence, because you are a great young person. And it seems that if you start on this path, it is very likely that everything will work out.