On June 11, 2025, the 10th anniversary meeting of the International Alumni Club was held at Penza State University.  

As of today, the International Alumni Club unites more than 150 specialists with an active lifestyle, who revealed their creative, scientific and socially significant talents and contributed to the improvement of training and student life while studying at PSU. They are representatives from 30 countries: Turkmenistan, Jordan, Iraq, Moldova, Kazakhstan, China, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Tunisia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Chad, Kenya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Mongolia, Colombia, Vietnam, Ghana, Iraq, Sudan, and Angola. 

The meeting was attended by honoured guests, namely Aleksandr Fionov, Advisor to the Rector at PSU, Gleb Sintsov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs at PSU, Sergey Voronkov, Vice-Rector for Security at PSU, Sergey Ivanchin, Head of the International Education Office of the Institute of International Cooperation at PSU, Olga Barabash, Acting Head of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language, Maksim Adamov, Assistant to Vice-Rector for International Affairs at PSU, and Svetlana Noikina, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language. 

“The International Alumni Club aims at strengthening international relations and serves as a tool for public diplomacy. We are always eager to keep in touch with our graduates,” noted Gleb Sintsov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs at PSU. 

The meeting was attended by alumni, who shared their wonderful stories of success with the graduates of 2025. Thus, Sanjay Tomer, the first Indian student at PSU to have graduated with a degree in General and Robotic Manufacturing Technology in 1998, shared his life journey with the attendees. Sanjay now lives and works in Penza. His spouse, Elvira Atashova, also graduated from PSU, coming from Turkmenistan. Other alumni also took part in the meeting, namely Ruslan Bulatov and Ilmira Bulatova from Kazakhstan, who graduated from the Polytechnic Institute and the Institute of Economics and Administration, respectively, Shutian Li from China, and Mohamed Abdelrahman Saad Abdelhakim from Egypt. Several alumni participated through video connection. They are Orkhan Novruzov from Azerbaijan, Mohamad Alwahshat from Jordan, Margi Parikh from India, Mahmud Mohamed Mehdi from Tunisia, Ali Siddiq Brahim from Chad, and Linda Yahi from Algeria. Dzheren Achilova from Turkmenistan, Rohit Patil from India, Yulia Rogozhkina from Uzbekistan, Anastasiya Dadoboeva from Tajikistan, Reykhan Guliyeva from Azerbaijan, Murun Gaanbatar from Mongolia, Mayank Pande from India, Xinyao Liu from China, Tobi Ogundiran from Nigeria, Irina Danilcheva from Moldova, Nosirjon Karimov from Tajikistan, and Georgi Mere from Estonia are among those international alumni who shared their video postcards with the meeting’s participants.

“Ten years ago, a small group of like-minded people decided to create a platform to unite those who studied at our university and live now in different parts of the world. This period saw our club coming a long way from a small initiative to the powerful community that unites dozens of international students all around the world,” said Sergey Ivanchin, Head of the International Education Office of the Institute of International Cooperation at PSU. 

Last year, the Club’s participants decided that the PSU International Alumni Association should be established during the 10th anniversary meeting by reorganising the Club. Adel Maqbol was chosen as a person in charge of organising and coordinating the work of the Association. 

“We, international graduates of PSU, organised the Association aiming at uniting our efforts to promote Penza State University in different countries to say thank you to our alma mater,” noted Adel Maqbol, the newly elected Chairman of the PSU International Alumni Association. 

In 2025, a record-breaking number of 438 international students from 24 countries are graduating from Penza State University across 54 majors.

During the anniversary meeting, 27 representatives from 12 countries, namely Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, India, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco, became members of the Association.

As part of the tradition, every graduate received a certificate of membership in the International Alumni Association, a letter of appreciation signed by the university rector, and an alumnus badge. The previous years’ alumni became honoured members of the Association in their turn. Moreover, the Alumni Wish Book, where everyone could write their wishes and signatures, was presented during the meeting.