Outbound Selects Photo Contest Winner

The results of the Outbound Department’s Summer 2009 Photo Contest are in! Join us in congratulating Daniel Tucker for his wonderful picture of Suzdal, Russia. Daniel, a rising senior at the University of Utah, is currently studying Russian in Vladimir, Russia as part of the Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP).

This summer, Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP) students were invited to participate in the Fourth Annual Outbound Photo Contest. The Outbound department received a wealth of submissions ranging from class excursions to Russian architecture to everyday student life in Russia. It was a very difficult decision, but our panel of judges would like to extend its congratulations to the overall winner – Daniel Tucker for his exceptional photo of Suzdal. Daniel described the photo, “This shows some of the beautiful Russian landscape and architecture, as well as a hint of Russian leisure time as boaters enjoy the peaceful river.” Daniel is a Chemical Engineering major at the University of Utah, as well as an ROTC student.

Christina Schwartz, a rising junior at the University of Chicago, won second place. Christina is majoring in Russian Language and Literature in Chicago, and will be spending both the summer and fall semesters in Vladimir. Alexandra Bishop, a rising junior at Bryn Mawr College, won third place. Alexandra is a Russian major currently studying in St. Petersburg. To view the second and third place winning photographs, as well as the honorable mentions, please go to the Photo Gallery section

This summer, American Councils has over fifty students studying Russian in three cities – Vladimir, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. 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, which usually include a trip to the Bolshoi Theater and Sergeyev Posad for Moscow students; the Hermitage, Pavlovsk, and Yusupovsky Palace for St. Petersburg students; the Golden Gate Museum of History; and 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 becoming Russian teachers themselves!) as well as illustrious careers in academia, business, government and NGOs in the U.S. and Russia.

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