Russian

Sophia Freuden ’16, Magna Cum Laude, International Affairs Major, Russian Minor

Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, Russia 2016-2017

In September 2016, Sophia Freuden will head off on the fulfillment of a lifelong dream: she will go to Russia on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.  The Fulbright is a lifelong dream, but Sophia’s interest in Russia came later – only at Lewis & Clark.  As an international Affairs Major, Sophia was drawn to the complicated but important role that Russia plays in world affairs; she was further drawn into the language and the culture through the department’s classes.  During her Overseas Program in Russia, Sophia earned a perfect 4.0 GPA, and brought back her knowledge of the language and culture to share with first year students, whom she taught as a group conversation leader in 2014-16.  Sophia also earned the Gilman Scholarship for Overseas Studies and the Oregon Consular Corps Scholarship for Undergraduate Study of International Affairs.  In addition to her involvement with the Russian Club, she was a dedicated member of student government, serving on the Student Rights & Responsibilities Committee the entirety of her time at LC.

 Although very successful in the classroom, Sophia has always sought out real-world experience.  As Sophia prepares to go off on her Fulbright, she is busy gaining real-world experience that will allow her to pursue her dream of working in the Foreign Service. Currently, she is in Washington, DC, working as an intern at the American Academy of Diplomacy, and she has previously served as an intern at the US Department of State’s Office of the Historian-Bureau of Public Affairs.

Wherever her future career takes her, Sophia’s love of Russia will be a key part of her professional life.

 

Scout (Sarah) Mills ’16, Magna Cum Laude, Self-Designed Russian Major

Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, Russia 2016-2017

Scout has known that she wanted to study Russian since she was five years old. But she didn’t know why she wanted to study it until she came to know Russian literature, whose “depiction of struggle as something one can embrace and find beauty within” inspired her to learn the language and the culture. She did this not only in class, but through three separate study-abroad trips to Russia: on the Lewis & Clark Overseas Program, on the Critical Languages Scholarship Program, and as part of a Homestay Cultural Ambassador program. Although literature remains important to Scout, through her trips to Russia and her coursework, Scout has discovered a new love – Russian history and cultural studies. At Lewis & Clark, Scout self-designed a major that allowed her to combine her love of Russia, her love of literature, and her love of history.  As part of the major, she wrote a penetrating Senior Research Thesis on Russian criminal identity, as expressed is tattoos and songs, and history of the Gulag in the Late-Soviet period.

At LC, Scout studied many things in addition to writing – education, art, creative writing being just some of her other interests. In addition to her studies, Scout was an active member of the Russian Club, a participant and coordinator in APOCALIPS Slam Poetry Club, and worked on KLC Student Radio. Her artwork was accepted and displayed during the William Stafford Symposium. She was the recipient of numerous honors, including the President’s Scholarship at LC.

After Fulbright, Scout is considering pursuing a PhD in Russian history, or a Master’s in International Education.

 

David Salkowski ’14, a Music Composition major and a Russian minor

David is currently a graduate student in musicology at Princeton University, where he is researching the work of the great Russian composer Prokofiev. David’s current career is a natural continuation of his time at Lewis & Clark, where he was an honors student of music and a Russian minor.  As an honors student of music, David combined his love of music and love of Russian by completing an honors research project on Arthur Lourie, a little-known Russian-born Jewish émigré composer, whose archive he studied in the New York City Public Library with the support of an LC SAAB grant. Not only did David translate Lourie’s documents from Russian and analyze both his music and personal writing, he made an excellent public presentation on his research topic and he gave it twice — at the traditional thesis presentation and also on All Classical Portland radio station. As a music composition major David gave a full concert of his own music in the spring of 2014.

At Lewis & Clark, David was not only a superb student, but also a campus leader. In addition to being a Pamplin Scholar, David was deeply involved in Lewis & Clark Music and Russian programs’ activities, including a student-led a cappella group, a folk-rock band, the College choir, Wind symphony, the Russian Club and the Russian community summer research project. As Professor Osipovich’s research assistant in the summer of 2013, David was responsible for researching the Russian-speaking Jewish immigration in Oregon. He examined primary sources at the Oregon Historical Society and the Oregon Jewish Museum, read secondary sources and interviewed people at local Jewish communities. In the end, he produced a scholarly survey article on the topic https://sites.google.com/a/lclark.edu/rsco/immigrant-communities/jews and he was instrumental in collecting information and designing other pages for this website. David also helped publicize the history of Russian-speaking immigrants in Oregon to a general audience by taking part in interviews about this work in the state’s daily newspaper, The Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/11/russian-speaking_immigrants_in_1.html

For David, Russian music, culture and language will always be an integral part of his academic interests, and his journey.