Elena Lebedeva

Elena Lebedeva _{Local SEED Coordinator}

"To consider anything form the optimistic point of view. Any experience is valuable."

 

I was born in Tolyatti, a Russian town located on a famous Volga riverbank. When I was six my parents moved to Nefteyugansk, a small Siberian town that was founded in 1967. At that time intensive development of the West Siberia oilfields started. This region needed mobilization of young petroleum specialists from all over the Soviet Union. It was a great time of records held in oil industry and construction in the area.

I had an exciting opportunity to see all the changes that dramatically improved the life and made the town better: from a gray spot, which could be observed from the plane (there were neither trees nor grass) to a nice green place. In 1987 I graduated from Tyumen State University. My specialization was foreign languages.

My first job was a French teacher in a high school where I worked for two years. Then I worked for an oil company as an interpreter. I had the opportunity to work for a few years at the drilling rig that was a good experience. I joined Schlumberger in February 1999 as an Assistant for the OFS Manager in Nefteyugansk where Schlumberger started the operations for a new Client. My responsibilities included translation and administrative tasks. I helped our Manager to communicate with Client and Contractor representatives.

My first involvement into the SEED project was helping review the SEED Science Center translation into Russian. Inessa Morozova, our IT Engineer, initiated the translation of the site. We were proud that the Russian version of the SEED Science Center was the first non-English version. I like this project because it gives invaluable opportunities to open up the world of science for the children and offers quite a new approach to science learning.

Now I'm the RSG SEED Coordinator. I like to meet with students and teachers to introduce our project. I'm glad that they appreciate our efforts and find many useful materials for their lessons and extracurricular projects in SEED. While visiting schools I discovered a lot of exciting things for myself. I meet a lot of very talented children; some of them know IT better than their teachers and can create amazing tings with PC!

My hobbies are traveling with my husband and daughter discovering new countries and cultures. I also like reading, knitting, and embroidery. My favorite sports are aerobics and skiing. Indoor plants are my real passion (caused by the lack of plants in my childhood I think).