Winner Named in Outbound Photo Contest

The results of the Outbound Department’s Fall 2008 Photo Contest are in! Join us in congratulating Matt Stephenson for his wonderful picture of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Yaroslavl. Matt, a junior at the University of Mississippi, is currently studying Russian in St. Petersburg, Russia as part of the Russian Language and Area Studies program.

This fall the Russian Language and Area Studies students were invited to participate in the Second Annual Outbound Photo Contest. The Outbound department received more than 50 submissions ranging in subject from class excursions to Russian architecture to Russian pop culture. It was a very difficult decision, but our panel of judges would like to extend its congratulations to the overall winner – Matt Stephenson for his exceptional photo of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Yaroslavl. Matt described the photo, “This is also a view of St. John the Baptist Cathedral, from a bridge with the sun setting behind the church. I think it's just a beautiful picture.” Matt is a Mathematics major at the University of Mississippi.

Mikel Shybut, a junior at Grinnell College, won second place. Mikel is a Russian and Biology major at Grinnell and is currently studying in Moscow. Emma Logdahl, a junior at Bucknell University, won third place. Emma is a Russian major, also studying in Moscow. To view the second and third place winning photographs, as well as the honorable mentions, please go to the Photo Gallery section at www.acrussiaabroad.org.

This fall American Councils has a total of 62 students studying Russian in three cities – St. Petersburg, Moscow and Vladimir. The Russian Language and Area Studies program serves both graduate and undergraduate students, who attend approximately twenty hours per week of class in Russian grammar, phonetics, conversation, history, and cultural studies; all courses are taught by native Russian-speaking faculty. One day per week of the academic program is set aside for local cultural excursions. Local excursions usually include a trip to the Bolshoi Theater and Sergeyev Posad for Moscow students, trips to the Hermitage, Pavlovsk, and Yusupovsky Palace for St. Petersburg students; and trips to the Golden Gate Museum of History; Uspensky Cathedral, and Suzdal for students living in Vladimir. During the semester, resident directors arrange a seven-to-ten-day trip outside the host city. RLASP groups have recently traveled to Kazan, Nizhni Novgorod, Rostov-na-Donu, Sochi, Suzdal, and Yaroslavl.

Alumni of this program have gone on to graduate school and academia (some of them going on to become teachers of Russian themselves!) as well as illustrious careers in academia, business, government and nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Russia.

For more information about the Russian Language and Area Studies program, please go to our website, www.acrussiaabroad.org.