RSU Annual Award 2021 presented!

On April 23, 2021, celebrating the 28th birthday of the Rīga Stradiņš university Student Union, the annual award ceremony of the Annual Golden Horseshoe took place. This year's Award of the Year was presented in eleven nominations. As a result of the pandemic, we came across various solutions that skillfully allowed us to create and transform events into a remote format, so the nomination "Digital Solution of the Year" was presented for the first time.

For the first time in the history of RSU SU, the ceremony took place remotely and virtually gathered the Student Union Council, board, activists, ex-members of the board and university management, as well as guests from other student unions and cooperation partners.

The Growth of the year 2021 – Elizabete Maija Liepa, a 1st year student of the study program "Medicine", using her determination, courage and love for the organization, learned in three months how the organization works, how events are organized and how to manage the direction of the board, thus becoming a great RSU SU board member.

The horseshoe of the year 2021 – Student research and innovation grants. The aim is to financially support and motivate RSU students for research, including business development and professional development. Until now, RSU students have not had the opportunity to receive funding to conduct their own research and develop ideas, so already in the first call 28 teams applied with their projects. Within the framework of the grants, several projects were supported, which will receive funding for the development of their projects from RSU, RSU Institute of Dentistry, RSU Business Incubator "B-Space" and RSU Student Union.

Ex-member of the board of the year 2021 – Liene Vaivode is a person who still loves organization with heart and soul, even after graduation. In 2018, Liene was the head of the Foreign affairs, later she ran for the position of the chairman and to this day there have been no cases when Liene would refuse her help.

Friend of the year 2021 – RSU Alumni association. Last year they were a huge helper in the project "Academy of Researchers", because without it the project would not have been so successful. Also, the involvement of the Alumni Association in the creation of Student Research and Innovation Grants is invaluable. Cooperation and exchange of views is something that is not lacking in the intermediate stages of all projects and activities.

Supporter of the year 2021 – RSU Institute of Dentistry has always been involved in student training, research and support. This year, the Institute of Dentistry provided invaluable support to student research by allocating significant funding to the Student Research and Innovation Grant Fund to support and promote student research and innovation in the dentistry sector. In the year 2020 a new student scientific group - Dentistry scientific group was created which cooperated in organizing both theoretical and practical meetings with the Institute of Dentistry.

Issue of the year 2021 – Vaccination of the international students An issue with a happy ending. At the end of last year, it was concluded that vaccination is not planned for foreign students, who make up almost 25% of health care students at RSU, who, like others, engage in clinical training, go to practice and meet patients in their study process. In many places, students from RSU who have gone to RSU Erasmus + mobility programs are vaccinated, however, in Latvia the question was not answered. RSU SU sent a letter to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Latvia asking about vaccination of foreign students, but no reply was received.

Scientific group of the year 2021 – Scientific group of Medical simulation, which in 2020/2021 has taken a significant step forward in its academic work. 8 group sessions were held, each session attended by various guest mentors with in-depth knowledge in the field of medical simulation. Initially, the meeting, chaired by an NMPD-certified effects specialist, was scheduled in person, but a week earlier, for epidemiological reasons, all face-to-face measures were canceled and the meeting was successfully adapted to the new circumstances within a short period of time. The members of the group had the opportunity to work in practice, thanks to specially prepared kits and all the necessary materials distributed to each student. The meeting received good feedback from the chairman of the board of the Swedish Medical Simulation Society, as well as the meeting was mentioned in the news of RSU and "Delfi". The group was also presented to the NMPD management and further mutual cooperation was discussed and considered.

Activist of the year 2021 – Laima Kampa, a student of the 2nd study year of the study program "Nutrition", and her passion for everything that has happened has made her get involved both as an activist in various events and in “invisible” works, which has made a great contribution to the development of RSU SU. In parallel with her studies, Laima also actively works as a councilor of the Latvian Students' Union and a member of the RSU SU’s Council.

Inspiration of the year 2021 - Anna Jete Gauja, a student of the 4th study year of the study program "Medicine", who started her career as a head of Social affairs and continued as the chairwoman of the RSU SU board, started her board year with big goals, hopes, dreams and things she wants to realize. Until March, the road to the goals was made quite safely, taking big steps, however, March 2020 brought great changes not only in the world and in Latvia, but thus, of course, also in RSU SU. Within a few weeks, all the dreams and goals that had been created before became much more unattainable and unrealizable, but Jete not only did not give up, but did not allow her board, the Council, or the organization as a whole to do so. The power with which the organization was led during the pandemic was immeasurable. Jete was able to adapt everything to the remote and was the person who took the organization through the year in a pandemic mood, inspiring both herself and others to strive for excellence.

Innovation of the year 2021 – project “Taureņa viļņos” A brand new idea, born at the end of last summer. The authors of the boat trip idea were RTU ETF, which wanted to organize the event together with RSU SU. The name of the event was chosen significantly, because the final destination of the boating place was RSU Sports Base "Taurene". The demand for the event was huge and it was not possible for everyone to attend the event. Although the duration of the boating itself was not long, the participants were greeted by various checkpoints along the entire boating route with tasks, in which points were accumulated, as well as a few tasks on site at the sports base, so as not to lose active mood on land. It was heard from each participant that it was necessary to repeat the event next year, making it a full two-day event and inviting more students from other universities to the group.

Digital solution of the year 2021 - METC prepared packages for the Faculty of Medicine 3rd study year to master their clinical skills who, due to the new situation in the country and in the world, sought solutions for the acquisition of clinical practice for the students of the Faculty of Medicine. With the help of METC and RSU SU, packets with several sets were operatively created, and they were delivered to all 3rd year students of the Faculty of Medicine. These packages fully ensured the operation of the study course "Pre-clinical practice METC" and creatively acquired all the necessary clinical skills before the summer practice, which turned out to be an effective solution for the study course, so also this year students received their packages and used them successfully to learn.

Viewers could follow the event live, which was provided by "Tiešraides.lv" on the platforms Facebook and YouTube. Miks Dukurs delighted the nominees and guests as a special guest, while the traditional RSU SU anthem "Only It" was performed by three musicians - Annamarija Pumpura (grand piano), Niklāvs Alpe (cahon) and Roberts Eihe (guitar, vocals). As in other years, the awards for nominees were created by Haralds Gerts.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to our wonderful sponsors: "Z/S Kotiņi" for gift boxes, Olympic Center "Rēzekne" for certificates of outdoor swimming pool and night in a double room with breakfast at RESTART hotel, Daina Einberga for individual consultations for promoting personal growth, "LifeTree" for gift certificates, "Silmachy" for shampoo soaps, as well as body soaps, "Offito craft" for leather products, Latgale Embassy "GORS" for present materials, "Skrīveru saldumi" for sweet sets, "Nela Gems", "Omniva" for deliveries, "Mansards" for books, "Balta Eko" for personalized notebooks, "Garage Wine Bar" for drinks, "PaperSeal" for gift boxes, "Metro" for cahon rental, "Fiqsy" for transportation, "Latvijas finieris" for veneer plywood for stage design and "Knots For Happiness" for knotted pendants.