Samsung Bulgaria Utilizes Technology to Bring Students Their Digital Heritage

Samsung Bulgaria is using technology to preserve precious pieces of Bulgarian history and share these digitized treasures through partnerships with Archives State Agency and Junior Achievement Bulgaria. For Samsung, this strategic project builds upon our work in the field of digital education, built around the philosophy that technology can be harnessed to significantly improve education and access to it.

The strategic partnership between Samsung Bulgaria and Archives State Agency began in 2015, with the main objective of digitizing valuable documents and archives to ensure their preservation and promotion, as part of a national cultural and historic heritage initiative.

As a result of the partnership, over 22, 000 historical documents and photos have been digitized and are now available to the general public online. The documents cover key topics including: authorities and government; Balkan wars; Photo archive; Czechs in post-liberation Bulgaria; Works of fine arts; Lists of deaths in the First World War; and Archives of the Theater and opera in Plovdiv.

Over the past few years, Samsung Bulgaria, alongside its long-time partners from Junior Achievement Bulgaria, has developed the innovative educational platform ‘Smart Classroom’, which enables students to study in an immersive, fully online environment. This three-way partnership between Samsung Bulgaria, Archives State Agency, and Junior Achievement Bulgaria has produced the first fully digital lessons in history, literature and the arts for Bulgaria, complete with the official seal of approval from the Ministry of Education and Science.

In an effort to reach an even greater number of students, these lessons are also available outside of Samsung Smart Schools, reaching more than 500 teachers and 11, 000 students across Bulgaria.

Chairman of the Archives State Agency Bulgaria, Dr. Michail Gruev, noted “Our mission is to preserve our valuable heritage for the future generations and technologies give a great support to us in this process. We are extremely proud of the achieved results so far in terms of digitization of documents and archives. Thanks to our partnership with Samsung, more and more interesting documents, photos, artifacts are now available to the general audience and everyone interested can now explore national heritage on our website.”

Through partnerships with the Archives State Agency and Junior Achievement Bulgaria, Samsung looks forward to continuing to preserve historical treasures in Bulgaria, while also ensuring digital availability for the public and fostering educational programs to engage students with their country’s rich past.