Highlights from the 2nd year FIPSE Annual Progress Report

David BuchananNovgorod State University

June 14, 2011

In the second project year (July 15, 2010 – May 31, 2011), the Rector and five NovSU faculty spent one week at UMass in September 2010, towards the goal of improving understanding of public health research and education in the US.

UMass faculty presentations:•HIV/AIDS in Russia, •reproductive health in Russia, •diabetes and chronic disease prevention in the US, •substance abuse and suicide prevention among ethnic minorities (including the Sami in Russia), •secondary alcohol abuse prevention on US college campuses, and •cultural analysis of the role of alcohol in Russian culture.

A new course, Health Care in Post-Soviet Russia, was implemented in the Fall 2010 semester at UMass. The course incorporated the use of a wide range of new social communication media (e.g., blogs, Facebook, YouTube, etc.).

Student evaluations indicate that it was very well received. Course materials have been posted on the new project web-site to enable wide access and dissemination.

Planning for the summer field work began in the fall. NovSU faculty, clinic personnel and medical students have been very helpful in collaborating with the design, conduct and analysis of focus groups on reproductive health issues, alcohol abuse and HIV/AIDS risk factors in preparation for the summer intern placements.

The cultural orientation program evolved significantly. The first major change was to identify learning objectives, and then, find qualified speakers to assign readings and give presentations on the select topics.

The revised orientation program has led to the accumulation of a set of orientation materials and readings, which we have also posted on the project web-site.

The second major change was to divide the cultural orientation into two sections: a broad socio-cultural and historical overview of life in Russia, and a set of pragmatic sessions on basic survival skills.

Students who participated in this exchange program won second and third place at the UMass Annual Public Health Research Day this year.

The Principal Investigator and Project Director travelled to Novgorod in November and in March.

This year, the UMass Chancellor accepted an invitation to visit NovSU made by Rector Weber during his visit in September.

The Chancellor and the Rector held a formal signing ceremony to announce the new exchange agreement (MOU) between our two universities during the visit in June.

They also held a press conference, officially declaring their intent to establish the new dual degree program, the first of its kind UMass.

A draft plan for the dual degree program has been developed and reviewed by NovSU.

At UMass, five faculty with no previous experience working in Russia responded to invitations to make presentations about their research to the visiting Russian faculty in September.

Three of these faculty members participated in the working meetings in Novgorod in June. Several are actively engaged in discussions about submitting new competitive research grant proposals with our Russian colleagues.

At this point in the project, there have been a total of 45 research exchange presentations by UMass and NovSU faculty to their counterparts and interested students.

The project has assembled copies of all 45 presentations, and almost all are now available bilingually. The presentations are posted on the project’s new web-site, and on Scholarworks, a project of the US public university system.

In response to requirements by the US DOE, the UMass team has set up a new web-site, which has become a repository of project materials, such as the conference presentations, project-related documents (such as the skills and competencies expected of public graduates in US, etc.), orientation materials, course materials, and scientific articles on various health issues

Based on the first year’s experience, we re-formulated the project management to include a quarter-time Project Director, with assistance from a 25% time Graduate Student Research Assistant.