What Is Next for AUBG’s Sofia Semester?

AUBG’s Sofia Semester is being offered for the second time in the university’s Elieff Center since its inauguration in Fall ‘24.

 

A major change as of Fall ‘25 is that the Sofia Semester has its own Project Manager, Professor Rossen Petkov. Previously, the initiative was handled by AUBG’s Provost and current Interim President J.D. Mininger.

 

The official statistics provided by professors lecturing in the Sofia Semester show that there were a total of seven students who signed up for the initiative in Fall ‘24. In the Fall ‘25 semester, that number has dropped to five. 

 

Ivet Peeva (‘25) said that not many people are open to an experience like the Sofia Semester. She added that most of the students hold positions in clubs they joined and prefer to keep them instead of enrolling in the initiative.

 

Valeriya Sotnikova, AUBG Class of '25, shared that a reason behind the lack of interest in the Sofia Semester is the limited pool of courses. 

 

"I think definitely that there are not a lot of courses," she said.

 

Christian Tenchev, a fourth-year student at AUBG, said, “It was Spring of 2024, and they advertised to us the various courses that would be offered, and I think there were a couple of Gen Eds.”

 

Addressing the topic, Prof. Petkov shared that a reccomendation from students is to add a course focused on Finance to the already existing pool of courses on offer. There have also been students who are taking part in the Sofia courses remotely, as certain hybrid options are available for courses in the Business major.

 

The Project Manager stated that fully on-ground classes are preferable. Professor Elena Radeva, who teaches a course offered in the Sofia Semester, agreed with this opinion. “It's not efficient to have the course as a hybrid,” she said. 

 

Based on the results of a Sofia Semester students' feedback document, many students also agree with this idea. Respondents said that they would feel better if a course were either fully online or on-ground and did not feature students located in both Sofia and Blagoevgrad.

 

 

Internships are a focal point of the Sofia Semester opportunity and can be used for AUBG course credits. According to both students and faculty, improvements should be made in this aspect. 

 

Prof. Radeva expressed that many of her students who underwent the internship interviewing process did not receive offers in time to manage to fill in the AUBG internship course paperwork.

 

She explained that the students need to receive approval and have a commitment from a company. “They [the companies] go through a process that, for whatever reason, takes longer.”

 

“I don't feel like you would particularly sense the difference between looking for internships yourself and AUBG helping you out,” said Christian. 

Prof. Petkov explained that an “internship menu” is being developed with the help of Provost Mininger, which will offer many opportunities to Sofia Semester students. “Our goal is to start talking to companies this semester for next fall,” he said.

 

AUBG has recurring internship partners from Fall ‘24, such as Lufthansa and Postbank. “We are shooting for maybe even more than 20 internship opportunities,” Prof. Petkov said. These should be paid and last for 20 hours per week as students combine them with lectures in the Elieff Center.

 

 

Prof. Petkov also expressed the importance of informing the students early about the Sofia Semester. “...We can benefit from letting students know, maybe even a year in advance, about the Sofia Semester program,” he said. 

 

Students thought that there were not enough social events organized by AUBG in Sofia. “We were promised that there would be events in Sofia, that they would gather people in Sofia, but nothing was done for half of the semester,” said Valeriya. 

 

Christian added that “one thing was to go and have dinner at J.D. [Miniger]'s apartment, which was only suggested one time.”

 

There was transport organized by AUBG from Sofia to Blagoevgrad for larger campus events such as the Halloween Party and the SG Christmas Ball. Valeriya added that “they organized one excursion to the [Ivan Vazov National] Theater in Sofia.”

 

Prof. Petkov expressed an idea for improving the social aspect, which is to host more networking events, such as leadership talks organized for the EMBA students in the Elieff Center. 

 

He emphasized the work in progress on students visiting events and other activities related to their major as a part of the Sofia Semester experience.

The Project Manager also shared about landing an opportunity for the current Sofia Semester students. “With the help of alumna Stephanie El Fil, we are able to secure gratuity tickets for the Crossroads Startup Conference, which is happening on 17 and 18 of October,” he said.

 

Students expressed their opinion that the housing on offer for the previous Sofia Semester did not have satisfactory conditions, and its location was too far away from the Elieff Center. Prof. Radeva said, “The previous housing was in Hipodruma [district], which is very far, extremely inconvenient for students to commute.”

 

Prof. Petkov explained that the housing problem is being worked on at the moment. Together with Student Affairs, “we will start looking now for next September, basically 11 months ahead of time, so we can have something which is both nice and nearby and students can actually be together.” 

 

The Project Manager shared about a potentially new position offered because of the Sofia Semester. 

 

“We have not named this position yet, it could be called a Local Liaison, it could be like a Resident Assistant on steroids,” he said. The idea is that this person takes care of other students as well as possibly their housing in Sofia.

 

Prof. Petkov said that the plan is to attract fourth-year students to the Sofia Semester because of the advanced-level courses offered. “Our goal would be to bring in maybe about 20 seniors next fall,” he stated. 

 

Prof. Radeva agrees with the Sofia Semester expansion plan. “It cannot run as a small, very boutique type of thing, using the resources of a professor for five students. That's a waste of resources,” she said.

 

Ivet has some advice for AUBG students considering the Sofia Semester. “Try that opportunity to get out of that bubble that we usually live in in Blagoevgrad.” She concluded that the Sofia Semester will help students to prepare for the real world.

 

Edited by: Kaloyan Ivanov and David Mitov