Several of the past and present Peace Fellows keep blogs. We will put links to any that we know about, on Fellows' individual web pages. Please let us know of any we have missed. Thank you.
MARINA KHARLAMOVA
RUSSIA
Country of Citizenship: Russia
Language Proficiency : Russian (native), English, Spanish
Education: BA in Journalism, St. Petersburg State University.
Sponsor Club: Rotary Club Neva, St. Petersburg
Sponsor District: 2220In 1997 – 1999 I majored in the English language and Literature at the same university and in 2001 I attended Journalism classes in Windward Community College, Hawai’i and studied Tourism Industry Management at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. It was at this multinational State of Hawai’i that I first started to reflect on the importance of understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity.
Areas of interest : Ability of sports events in enhancing good will and promoting tolerance; role of mass media in facilitating conflict resolution.
Background : I am from St. Petersburg, Russia. I started my professional career as a freelancer in several St. Petersburg and Moscow newspapers and magazines. During this period I covered various topics, from teachers’ strikes to substance dependant teenagers and means of their rehabilitation.
At the same time I became a Facilitator for the Open World Program, bringing groups of Russian professionals to the USA, and working as a mediator between representatives of two cultures, explaining cultural differences and helping to establish friendly relations between the Russian delegates and their American hosts and colleagues.
Eventually my growing interest in event management and international relations led me into organization of major international sports competitions in St. Petersburg. In collaboration with commercial and governmental institutions, as well as consulates of the countries whose citizens were present at the competitions, I planned and carried out various activities for the sportsmen, journalists, public and official delegations. This was a serious responsibility as cultural differences and political situation had always to be taken into account.
But it was only when I joined Press Department of Football Club Zenit that I fully realized that sports competitions (especially football), if correctly promoted and organized have a power of promoting cooperation if not friendship and preventing conflicts.
What do you plan to do with you're RWPF: Due to the sport’s unique quality of engaging large groups of people emotionally, sports events have a great potential in peace building and conflict resolution. However in my opinion this phenomenon is still underestimated by media, public relations professionals as well as political groups. I believe that it is also an understudied aspect of international relations that I have a great desire to explore under the supervision of the University of Bradford and Rotary Center faculty. During my Fellowship I would like to acquire new skills and learn how it is possible to prevent conflicts and ease tensions both on local and global scale by applying this potential of sports events.