On October 29, 2020, Rachel Faith ’14, who works as a translator for the World Intellectual Property Organization (UN) in Geneva, talked about how her expertise in Russian language and culture opened up for her an exciting career in the field of translation and patents. We had a large turnout at the talk and students were exited to ask questions and learn about Rachel’s exciting career path.
Category: Alumni Updates: Russian Studies
The Russian House (Pleasants Hall) hosted the RPSS Homecoming reception for alumni of the program. Former and current students, friends, majors and minors gathered to catch up and enjoy delicious Russian food. It was great to learn about all the exciting things you are doing and about your future plans. Stay in touch and visit us again at next year! It was so wonderful to see you all!
Living in Vienna was a fantastic experience. The Austrian-American Educational Commission Fulbright program gave me the unique opportunity to work abroad and teach English at two Bundesgymnasiums (high schools) and five grades (4th form through 8th form). My students were very eager to learn about American culture and practice for their English oral section of the Matura (graduating exam). There was not a single boring day during my tenure in Vienna. I truly looked forward to coming to work, commuting on the U-Bahn (metro) from Simmering station to Josephstädter Straße, and lesson planning. Perhaps my favorite lessons to teach were on pronunciation, where I included tongue twisters and accents, and lessons on the American school system, and American politics. Work aside, I had a couple of hobbies that I brought from the US: fencing and playing violin. Thanks to my Austrian fencing club, Fecht-Union-Mödling, I was able to compete in Munich, Brno (in the Czech Republic), Vienna, and Villach. When I was not fencing or traveling, I fiddled out on the streets and made a good amount of Trinkgeld (pocket money). Applying to Fulbright was certainly one of the best decisions I made in college. I learned so much from different cultures, made life friends and great memories! If given the chance, I would recommend applying to Fulbright in Austria! I would advise you to take advantage of the Donauinsel biking paths, ice skate in front of the Rathaus during the Christmas season, see the Hundertwasserhaus, and travel as much as possible to other Austrian cities and bordering countries of Austria since it is only a Flixbus or train ride away! Fulbright opened many doors for me – I got accepted into all three graduate programs I applied to and received several job interviews. I decided to go with a contracting government position, where I will use my translation and analytical skills.
Suzanne Reed works for Yandex Money. (update: 2013)
Kate Mrkvicka has just received her MA from Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Her thesis was entitled “Martyrs or Statistics: Self-immolation and Regime Security’ and it examined what societal or political factors make self-immolation incidents a greater threat to a regime’s security, using Vietnam, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania and Tibet as case studies” (update: 2013).
Alex is heading to Novosibirsk, Russia in September as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant! From September 2013 to June 2014 he will be teaching at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute (update: 2013)
Kristine Mosuela has been selected for a Fulbright U.S. Student award for 2013-2014 to Mongolia.
Ed Geist defended his dissertation “Two Worlds of Civil Defense: State, Society, and Nuclear Survival in the USA and USSR, 1945-91” at UNC Chapel Hill. Ed also received a postdoc for the next academic year — he will be a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at RAND Corporation in Washington, where he will be conducting research related to nuclear power plant safety. (update 2013)
Valerie Hopkins
Valerie Hopkins is pursuing an MA in Journalism at Columbia University. She posted her recent article on FB today (http://www.opendemocracy.net/
Christina studies at the University of Pittsburgh Law School (update: 2013)
Jacob Lassin (’13) Jacob is currently studying Russian in Ufa, Russia. He is also interning at a local tv station, and has worked translating at a summer biathlon championship. In fall 2013 Jacob starts graduate program at Yale University (update: 2013).
Emily is moving to London to attend Kingston University’s Master’s program in Human Rights and Genocide Studies (update: 2012).
Sabina is a grad student in Russian Studies at NYU (update: 2013).
MK currently is a graduate student. In 2012 MK worked as a Junior Fellows Intern at the Library of Congress. Her official assignment is to work
in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and within this department, specifically, the Yudin Collection. The collection is comprised of more than 80,000 documents donated to the LIbrary of Congress in 1906 by a wealthy Siberian businessman, Gennadii Vasil’evich Yudin. Yudin Collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/268.html (update: 2013).
Caitlin will be working this summer as a Junior Fellows Intern at the Library of Congress. Her official assignment is to work
in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and within this department, specifically, the Yudin Collection. The collection is
comprised of more than 80,000 documents donated to the LIbrary of Congress in 1906 by a wealthy Siberian businessman, Gennadii
Vasil’evich Yudin. Yudin Collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/268.html (update: 2012)
Maggiewill be working this summer as a Junior Fellows Intern at the Library of Congress. Her official assignment is to work
in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and within this department, specifically, the Yudin Collection. The collection is
comprised of more than 80,000 documents donated to the LIbrary of Congress in 1906 by a wealthy Siberian businessman, Gennadii
Vasil’evich Yudin. Yudin Collection: http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/268.html (update: 2012).
Monika is the recipient of 2012 Fulbright ETA to Belarus. Also Monika’s article on Pushkinskaia 10 Art Community in St.
Petersburg was published in the online journal artinrussia.org,
http://artinrussia.org/the-legacy-of-unofficial-art-in-st-petersburg-the-case-of-pushkinkaya-10-art-center/ (update: 2012)
Max is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Slavic Studies at Northwestern University (update: 2012).
Vadim is a Ph.D. student at Yale University (update: 2014).
Michael works for financial industry in the Richmond area (update: 2013).
Elise Thorsen (’06) is currently working on her Ph.D. dissertation. In 2013 she has been awarded a prestigious Cultural Studies Ph.D. Research Scholarship. In her own words: “I did embarrassingly well, even, and I think I have support in my department for a dissertation that extrapolates to an abstract level about epos-building and aesthetics from interwar Soviet poetry. Now, it’s onward (and upward, excelsior!) to a dissertation.” 🙂
Elise is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh. She completed Middlebury Summer School in 2006 and a graduate program at the Center for International Studies at Moscow State University in 2008. In 2009 Elise received her M.A. degree. Her research interests include Russian and Soviet Empire, Imaginative Geography, Stalinism, Citizenship and Recognition, Utopia, Soviet Film, Soviet Science Fiction, Yugoslav Literature and Culture (update: 2013)
Erin Alpert has just received a prestigious Lillian B. Lawler Fellowship for advanced Ph.D. research. Her new articles have just been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals Studies in Documentary Film and Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema. Her research interests include documentary cinema, GULAG studies and Holocaust studies. (update: 2013).
William Sinnott accepted his offer to Georgetown’s MA program in Russian and East European Studies. In 2011 Will received the Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award.
(update: 2012).
Michael Roberts (’10) works for the government. (update: 2010)
Erin O’Grady (’10) works for the government. (update: 2013)
Rosa Mutchnick (’10) teaches English in Samoa (Teach for America) (update: 2010)
Seth Lacy (’10) works for the State Department. (update: 2010)
Richard Jordan (’10) is a Ph.D. student at Princetion University. (update: 2010)
Pete Giannino (’10) received Fulbright Scholarship and will be spending the next year in Germany. (update: 2010)
Kurt Carlson ( ’10) serves in the US Army. (update: 2013)
Sarah Argodale (’10) is a graduate student. (update: 2013)
Jacob Shier (’05) Received Fulbright and taught English in Ekaterinburg and Perm (Russia). Received M.A. in translation from Columbia University. “Right now I am in Daegu, South Korea on a one-yera teaching contract with Chungdahm Learning. I’ve been doing lots of hiking and weekend traveling, and still read in Russian regularly, Anna Karenina being my current project.” (update: 2010)
Sarah Hutchison (’00) currently works for the Department of State. She got back from Turkmenistan in September 2008 and will be working at the embassy in Bulgaria from summer 2008 until summer 2010. Sarah used to work at one of the institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy. (update: 2008)
Karen (Dause) Romanovich (’02) “I think the last time I saw you was perhaps after my first year in Kazakhstan? I spent a total of three years in Kazakhstan, the first in Karaganda and the last two in Kokshetau. Then I moved to Wheaton, Illinois for grad school in Biblical Exegesis (where I was pleasantly surprised that Russian grammar gave me a head start on Greek grammar). Even more surprising was the number of Russian speakers I became connected with in the area. I found out about a small Russian congregation at a local American church, and began attending there as a way to ease back into life in the US. A year later (2005), a number of Meskhetian Turkish refugees moved into our area from Russia. I became good friends (and a ready resource) for them, and continue to spend lots of time with them.
A little over a year ago, I married Vadim Romanovich, the son of one of the Russian-speaking couples in the Russian fellowship I had been attending. He is originally from Latvia and I have enjoyed being a part of his family and culture. So, I do keep up with my Russian, though still with many mistakes.” (update: 2008)
Larisa (Nargi) Gervasi (’08) works for Chesapeake Regional Healthcare Foundation (update: 2010)
Linda Crossman (’08) works for the Defense Security Service (update: 2013).
Mikhail Zeldovich (’97) received a law degree from Harvard University and is currently practicing law for the US government in DC. (update: 2013)
Nicole Radshaw (’97) received her Masters degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Virginia. (update: 2008)
Melissa Preston Horwitz (’95) Foreign Service Officer for the US Dept. of State. Stationed in China (update: 2010).
Jenne Powers (’97) teaches in Boston area. (update: 2009)
Got her MA in Russian Lit from UNC, Chapel Hill. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Grant to do dissertation research in Moscow in the Fall and Winter of 2005-06. (update: 2008)
Jen Otterbein (’97) “After teaching Spanish for seven years in high school in New Jersey, I quit my job this summer to go back to school. I am currently getting my Masters of Divinity at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, NY. One of the families that is in my program spent a summer teaching English at Gerzen University in St. Petersburg where I studied Russian in 1995! They are the first people I have ever met that were at the same school in Russia! So we enjoy talking about the school and St. Petersburg. They are hoping to move to Russia permanently after graduation. Who knows if I will find myself there again when I graduate…” (update: 2008)
“Studying Russian at William & Mary was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and has truly benefitted me in everything I have done. Thanks so much for all that you do! Encourage your students to keep going!!” (update: 2006)
Rachel Mikeska (’99) recently finished a Master’s degree in Historical Preservation at the University of Texas, Austin, and is now on an Alpha Bank fellowship program in Moscow, where she will be working with local government organizations concerned with preserving historically significant architecture. For more information about this program, go to http://www.cdsintl.org/fromusa/alfa.htm. (update: 2008)
Pamela Mahony (’95) teaches HS social studies and special ed. (update: 2010)
Don Holt (’95) is currently the Vice President of Institutional Sales for TD Ameritrade (update: 2010)