Collect time in fragments – student Maria Kuzmina, winner of the Winter school of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University

The project of Maria Kuzmina, a student of the Faculty of Philology, became the winner of the international educational program "Winter School of Journalism and Communication" of the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The author received an invitation to complete an included study at MSU Journalism Faculty in the fall semester of the 2026/2027 academic year.

International Winter School

– Why did you decide to participate in the International Winter School?
– I often take part in various educational programs. Lyudmila Vasilyevna Skibitskaya, head of the Department of Belarusian and Russian Literary Studies and Journalism, drew attention to this. She invited me and two other students from my group to try our hand at winter school.

– How were the classes?
– The online winter school lasted two weeks. The main task was to create a media project and present it through a website that needed to be developed independently. I got the idea in my first class. Later, I proposed it to the team, and the idea was immediately accepted. The implementation process was the hardest, because there were a lot of options for how to show the phenomenon of derealization. The real challenge was that the winter school coincided with the last week of the session and it was necessary to listen to a course of lectures, develop a media project and prepare for exams.

– What is the point of the project?
– We have created a multimedia research website "Chronosboy" dedicated to the phenomenon, which we have designated as historical derealization. We live in an era of information saturation, where history exists simultaneously in textbooks, memes, blogs, films, news and social networks. As a result, the past is increasingly perceived not as a sequential process, but as a set of fragments that seem to exist at different times. We wanted to eliminate these time disruptions so that people would feel more confident in their own sense of time. The goal of the project is not just to capture the phenomenon, but to create an interactive space in which the user can live this experience and broaden their horizons.
By the way, the organizers did not put us in a thematic framework. 23 people from different countries participated in the winter school. There was a girl from Grodno in my team who was incredibly helpful with the visual design. A participant from Tajikistan was unable to fully participate in the work due to personal circumstances, but she was very supportive of the project at the start.

– What did winter school give you?
– A lot of new acquaintances, cool cases from practicing specialists and the opportunity to be not a passive listener, but a full-fledged participant in the real process of creating a media product.

Behind the scenes

– Masha, the winter school and many other projects confirm that you have chosen the right professional path. Why are you interested in the field of information and communication?
– I like communication, the organization process, and the search for interesting things. When my classmates already clearly understood in which direction they would develop after school, I had only a general image of the future. I started from the subjects that I liked, and from the very essence of the specialty. The field of information and communication immediately hooked me. There was no recruitment in Brest at that time, and I was ready to go to Minsk or Grodno. When I was in the eleventh grade, BrSU announced the first enrollment in the specialty "Information and Communication". I realized that it was a sign. I really like our philological family. To be honest, after my native small gymnasium, I did not think that I would be able to find such a friendly and warm atmosphere anywhere else.

– What inspires you?
– I subscribe to a large number of telegram channels about media. It's not specific people who inspire me, but their strong cases and cool projects that I see in the media space. I try not to compare myself with others, but of course there are people I look up to. I have consciously surrounded myself with ideological people and I am very proud of it. I have someone to learn from.

– You probably know what burnout is.
– In addition to studying and participating in various projects, I work as a creator and copywriter at the MACHINERY creative agency, I am a member of the Youth Council of the Brest City Council of Deputies, I am engaged in scientific activities and organize events. So, yes, I do have burnout. My family and friends help me cope with it. Sometimes I call my younger sister, mother or grandmother – they always know how to cheer up and support. Sometimes I go out with friends. There are times when you want silence. Of course, hobbies are a wonderful medicine. I play volleyball, sew, assemble mosaics, draw by numbers, and really love shopping. I like to travel. For the last three years in a row, I have been trying to visit at least one new country for me.

A look into the future

– Masha, what advice can you give to first-year students?
– Try your hand at everything. Do not refuse to participate in contests and Olympiads, even when the question arises: "Is it necessary?". Gain experience and learn to filter out the excess. Sometimes what seems like nourishment is actually destructive. It is also important to understand this in time.

– What skills are important for a modern media specialist?
– During my studies, I realized that the most important thing is to be inquisitive. A person who is generally uninterested has nothing to do in this area. It is also important to be able to switch quickly, not give up when something goes wrong, and accept constructive criticism. Of course, we must not forget about literacy, broad horizons, respect and a sense of tact – this is taught in the philology faculty. But each specialist should develop his own inner flexibility and interest in the world.

– What are your plans?
– I want to develop and try my hand at larger-scale projects. In 2027, I set myself the goal of going to the Alps.

– What, in your opinion, is the mission of the communicator?
– It seems to me that information and communication specialists are needed in order to bring order to the information noise: to separate the truth from lies and offer people really valuable things. Nowadays, it is impossible to completely shut out the flow of information. But you can make it high-quality and useful: to talk about important and interesting things, not to repeat yourself, to look for new things or rethink the well-forgotten old.

Anna Reznik,
Faculty of Philology
Photo from the archive of Maria Kuzmina