What Is Next for AUBG’s Sofi a Semester? Feb. 17, 2025 A UBG’s Sofi a Semester is being off ered 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 Sofi a 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 offi cial statistics provided by professors lecturing in the Sofi a 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 fi ve. Ivet Peeva, Class of ‘25, said that not many people are open to an experience like the Sofi a 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, Class of ‘25, shared that a reason behind the lack of interest in the Sofi a Semester is the limited pool of courses. “I think defi nitely 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 off ered, and I think there were a couple of Gen Eds.” Addressing the topic, Prof. Petkov shared that a recommendation from students is to add a course focused on Finance to the already existing pool of courses off ered. There have also been students who are taking part in the Sofi a 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 6 Fall 2025 | AUBG Daily course off ered in the Sofi a Semester, agreed with this opinion. “It’s not effi cient to have the course as a hybrid,” she said. Based on the results of a Sofi a 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 Sofi a and Blagoevgrad. Internships are a focal point of the Sofi a 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 off ers in time to manage to fi ll 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 diff erence between looking for internships yourself and AUBG helping you out,” said Christian.
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