Alumni and Careers

What have you been up to since graduating from Bowdoin?

My class (virtually) graduated in May 2020, so the Fulbright research grant to Estonia I had received in March had to be postponed. I was fortunate to have secured another job before the pandemic turned the world upside down, so I worked for a year as a legal analyst in Washington, DC. This global law firm allowed me to put my two degrees, government and legal studies and Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies (REEES), into use right away. It was exciting to see how I could apply my Russian language skills in a professional setting, though I quickly realized that this was not my dream job. In the summer of 2021, I was finally able to relocate to Estonia when my postponed Fulbright grant officially began. I spent almost a year there and learned more about the country, the region, and myself than I ever anticipated. A few months after returning from my Fulbright, I began a PhD in political science at Princeton. I am now in my fourth year of the program and return to Estonia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union, every six months for dissertation research and to catch up with great friends I made along the way.

Why Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies?

When I was a first-year student, I originally planned to double-major in government and legal studies and Hispanic studies. At the time, it felt impossible to get into government classes, so I put my name on every waitlist I could find and eventually got a seat in Professor Laura Henry's Post-Communist Russian Politics and Society course in spring 2017. That course, along with the generous mentorship of Professor Henry, profoundly changed the course of my life and led me to become a government and REEES double major at Bowdoin.

I had never considered studying Russian or learning the language, but the course sparked an interest I simply had to pursue. I enrolled in Russian in the fall of my second year, received funding to work on an independent research project related to Russian politics the following summer (mentored by Professor Henry), and then traveled to Moscow for a language immersion at the end of that summer. Through the kindness of Bowdoin alum Evan Gershkovich ’14, I secured an internship at The Moscow Times, one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Russia at the time. My time in Moscow was rewarding to say the least.

In my senior year, I applied for a Fulbright grant in Estonia to deepen my understanding of the region and the use of the Russian language outside of Russia. In hindsight, it all started with one gripping class and a phenomenal mentor.

What advice would you give to current students or recent graduates interested in your field?

Languages and cultural competencies are skills that pay dividends in many careers and can greatly enrich your personal life. Bowdoin is a wonderful place to develop these skills while also pursuing other academic interests. I encourage prospective and current students to take full advantage of opportunities to learn about different cultures and languages, both on campus and abroad, whenever possible. Be sure to take Professor Henry's Post-Communist Russian Politics and Society course and Professor Herrlinger's Russia’s Twentieth Century class.

About me

When I came to Bowdoin, I did not intend on becoming a Russian major. As a heritage speaker of Russian, I wanted to only take a few semesters of language courses to improve my speaking ability, and learn how to read and write. However, I was impressed with the breadth of courses the small department offered, and I realized that a Russian major would complement my interests in Government and History. As a sophomore, I decided to major in Russian. My concentration was in Russian Area Studies, and I thoroughly enjoyed all my classes. My language skills came in handy when I interned at a think tank my sophomore summer and later on when I was on the job hunt.
 
 I did not study abroad while at Bowdoin, but being a Russian major has encouraged me to travel to Russian-speaking countries after graduation. As a senior, I wrote a comparative honors thesis in the Government department on the Soviet and American wars in Afghanistan. My knowledge of Russian undoubtedly helped me produce a capstone research project I can be proud of. I would strongly encourage anyone interested in Russian language, culture, politics, or economics to consider majoring

About me

I initially took a course in the Russian department to fulfill a requirement in my freshman year. Four years later I graduated as a Russian major!

After becoming interested in Russian culture through a literature class taught in translation, I decided to pursue the language. I did not know initially that I would end up as a Russian major, but once I started taking Russian classes at Bowdoin, I was hooked. I was fortunate enough to be able to study abroad in Moscow, and I will certainly never forget the experience.

This summer I will begin working at Athena Global Advisors, a boutique consultancy in Philadelphia. Although my coursework in Russian does not directly relate to the work I will be doing, I expect that many of the skills I developed while completing my major—adaptability, thinking from different perspectives, and, perhaps most importantly, discipline—will help me tremendously. I would encourage any Bowdoin student to take at least one class in the Russian department. The fascinating subject material, dedicated professors, and small class sizes ensure that each and every class is academically enriching.

What have you been doing since graduation?

I am a 2017 graduate of Bowdoin, now in my second year of law school at Georgetown Law. While at Bowdoin, I double-majored in Philosophy and Russian. As a Russian major, I spent four years studying Russian language and culture and relished the opportunity to participate in such a rigorous, well-rounded, and global program nestled in beautiful Brunswick, Maine. Although my focus these days is more on statute books and Supreme Court opinions than on the Cyrillic script, I haven't lost my love for the Russian language and the study of Russian culture and politics. As a means of stoking my interests and those of the broader law school community, I founded Georgetown Law's first and only Russian-oriented student organization: The Russian Law and Security Club. Our organization seeks to provide a forum in which students, faculty, and staff can discuss the intersection of U.S. and Russian law and politics. While our focus is often on issues that can be legally and morally troubling, (such as Russia's interference in Ukraine and in the U.S. elections), our broader goal is to improve transparency and catalyze a dialogue geared toward collaboration, rather than mutual distrust. My Russian studies at Bowdoin not only provided me with a rich understanding of Russian history, language, and culture, but also cultivated a life long interest that I now have the opportunity to share with others. 

About Me

As high school drew to a close, I began casting about for a new language to learn, partly to bolster my internationally-oriented career ambitions but mainly out of a general desire to better understand the world. I found myself entranced by the sounds of Russian, so deeply strange to my Anglophone ears. I tried teaching myself Cyrillic and some rudimentary grammar and vocabulary, but it wasn’t until I arrived at Bowdoin that I had the opportunity to really sink my teeth into Russian; or rather, for the Russian bear to sink its teeth into me. Without question, I found it difficult, but the tight-knight Russian community at Bowdoin helped me persevere.

Things really got interesting in my sophomore year, as the events of the Maidan protests gave way to the annexation of Crimea and war in the Donbas. My nascent interest in Russian politics and foreign policy blossomed into a full-blown fascination. I spent the summer between my sophomore and junior years honing my language skills at Middlebury’s Davis School of Russian, and for the duration of my time at Bowdoin took as many Russian-related courses as I could. The summer after graduating as a dual Russian – Government & Legal Studies major, I finally traveled to Russia on a Critical Language Scholarship. My experience there was endlessly fascinating, enormously educational, and certainly long overdue; my advice to anyone who’s caught the Russia bug is that there is simply no substitute for being in-country. 

Upon my return, I moved to Washington, DC, where I began working as the Russian Studies intern at the American Enterprise Institute. For nine months, I was able to completely immerse myself in Russia’s politics and foreign relations, writing daily news briefs and assisting with both editorials and research papers. I loved every minute of it. I next moved on to working for a legal policy forum in Boston, before applying to law schools and International Relations programs, with the aim of pursuing a dual JD-MA. I have just completed my first year of law school at NYU. I can’t say for sure where this path will lead me, but I know that my relationship with Russia and its language will continue to guide me along it. 
 

About Me

In high school, I studied 20th century Russian history, listened to Russian music, and even taught myself Cyrillic. However, I did not expect to what extent Bowdoin’s Russian department would allow me to explore my varied interests: languages, music, and culture. My professor and advisor summarized my experience in the Russian department well to my colleagues in the last few weeks of my senior year, “His work in the Russian program did not earn him a degree in Russian, but rather a degree in Slavic.” I think what is unique about Bowdoin’s Russian department is that the department allows you to explore your own unique interests pertaining to Russia and other Slavic cultures. Learning Russian is an experience that not only opens the door to travel to and understand past and contemporary Russia, but learning Russian opens the door to every other Slavic language. Because the Russian department allowed me to pursue my interests in other Slavic languages and cultures, I explored my interests in the former Yugoslavia during the summer and I received permission and funding to conduct honors research on the topic of folk music in post-war Poland. I am thankful for all the experiences the department was able to provide, but I am most thankful for their help in preparing me to apply for Fulbright. As a direct result of my experiences in Eastern Europe and the freedom to explore my own interests in the department, I was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Bulgaria. Having returned to the US and having begun my career, my job as a schoolteacher does not utilize my knowledge of Slavic languages and culture every day. However, Bowdoin’s Russian department fostered within me a truly unique liberal arts experience, inspiring me to become a passionate life-long learner.

 My biggest piece of advice to those interested in studying Russian is to stick with it and keep an open mind. Your path in Russian does not put you on any one pre-determined career field. The Russian Department does an excellent job at giving you the chance to explore your interests and thus your career.

About Me

I graduated from Bowdoin in 2015 with a major in Russian and History. Since starting out in Russian 101 my first year, I have made it to Russia three times and have become engrossed in its history, literature, and language. My junior year of college I went abroad with ACTR to St. Petersburg, where I stayed with an amazing family that I’m still in touch with. After graduating, I accepted a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Ulyanovsk. There, I discovered an incredibly warm and generous community that welcomed me and made me feel at home within Russian culture. In 2017 I started a history PhD at Columbia University, leading me back to Russia in the summer of 2018 to do archival work in Moscow. None of this, from the research and reading in Russian to the connections I’ve made each trip, would have been possible without the enthusiastic instruction and support of the Russian department throughout my time at Bowdoin.

After taking Russian 101, I never looked back. I’m so grateful for the experiences my Russian education has given me: taking a trip on the Trans-Siberian, dog-sledding at Baikal, eating home-made syrniki in near-strangers’ homes. Without Russian at Bowdoin, not only would I not be able to pursue the career of my dreams in academia, but I also would have missed out on countless adventures and friendships.

About Me

I graduated in 2015 with a double major in Government and Legal Studies and Russian, and immediately afterward journeyed to Kiev, Ukraine on a Study/Research Fulbright grant for a year. I utilized my Russian language skills to communicate with and interview scores of individuals—students, attorneys, physicians, and bureaucrats, among others—to conduct research on the Ukrainian government’s negligence toward its human trafficking problem, and the effects Russia’s aggression on the country’s eastern border was having on the internally displaced people forced to leave their homes and livelihoods. Without the continued support and substantial guidance I received from my professors and colleagues within Bowdoin’s Russian department, and the rigorous curriculum it offered, I am certain I would never have been able to secure such a valuable and life-changing experience abroad. My stint in Ukraine only reinforced my interest in pursuing an interdisciplinary career that will allow me to merge my interests in human rights, security, and the political and economic development of Russia and the post-Soviet states. I am currently working in Washington, DC as a Communications Associate at the Government Accountability Project protecting whistleblowers and holding governments to a higher standard. In the future I hope to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs and join the Foreign Service—and ideally spend as much time as possible living and working in eastern Europe.

About Me

Even though my parents were born in the Soviet Union and I grew up speaking Russian at home, I never had a real connection to Russia. We didn't have any close relatives left to visit, my parents didn't have many emigre friends in the States, and I never took an interest in the country's history or literature. In short, I never planned to live in Russia. 

Then I decided to become a journalist. In a profession that has lost about a quarter of its jobs in the past decade, young journalists have had to get creative. Some seek out stories in the so-called heartland or along the southern border, others head to war zones, and others still relocate to a foreign country if they know its language. A year ago, I did the latter, taking a job as a reporter for The Moscow Times, an independent English-language news outlet. The decision has far exceeded my expectations. In terms of work, there are stories aplenty with the opportunity to report them out, and no news day is ever dull. And as far as living here goes, well, in a country that has never been quite sure whether it is part of the West or the East, where moral clarity is often more gray than it is black and white, where extremes seem to be the norm in all spheres of life, and where train travel is relatively cheap and the destinations varied, it's just as interesting. 

About Me

The best part of studying Russian at Bowdoin was the community—a motley group of students and professors who coalesced around their shared interest in the language. Like scores of Bowdoin Russian students before me, I benefited from the benevolent intensity of Professor (now Emerita) Jane Knox. I still remember her proclaiming Mayakovsky and Blok between bites of salad during a dinner class, urging us to walk rhythmically in order to internalize iambic meter, and offering extra credit to anyone who could demonstrate the art of Tuvan throat singing.

I didn’t begin studying Russian at Bowdoin, but through coursework and conversation I made quick progress towards proficiency. More importantly, I developed a deeper sense of the complexity of Russian history and culture and the ways that the collective trauma of the past plays out in individual lives. I was hooked, and I went on to complete a master’s degree in Russian regional studies. I subsequently spent a year working on governance assistance programs in Eurasia at a nonprofit before starting my current job in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department, where I am excited to be helping advance international understanding through the study of language and culture.

In a time of renewed geopolitical tensions, it's as important as ever to be conscious of the ways that differing perspectives are informed by historical experience and cultural values. There is no better way to build that awareness than through the sustained study of another language and its contexts.

About Me

My studies of Russian and Russian literature fulfilled the Offer of the College for me in many ways. I can think of no better way “To be at home in all lands and ages”, as former President of Bowdoin William DeWitt Hyde promised, than by cultivating a genuine appreciation for another culture and the history with which it is intertwined. The critical lens and thoughtful approach to examining problems that I developed through my studies of the central philosophical debates in nineteenth-century Russia (specifically in the 19th Century Russian Literature course with Professor Raymond Miller) not only informed my intellectual explorations as an undergraduate, but also enabled me to creatively solve problems in the workplace at the digital media and technology firms I worked for in New York City in the four years following my graduation, and continue to guide my current interests in the field of international affairs. Thus, the lines “To carry the keys of the world’s library in your pocket / And feel its resources behind you in whatever task you undertake” truly resonate with me. My studies with the Russian Department encouraged me to continually challenge myself to produce original analyses on topics related to enduring theoretical and social questions, and I believe this experience provided me with invaluable critical thinking skills that helped me advance the organizations I worked for, both in the setting of a small team at a start-up and on a large team at a subsidiary of a publicly traded corporation.

At present, I am entering the field of international affairs and public policy. I completed a Master of International Affairs degree at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), with a dual concentration in International Security Policy and Economic Policy, in May 2019. A couple of summers ago, I interned at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the Office of Europe and Eurasia. My internship experience was particularly fascinating for me because it brought together the numerous dimensions of my studies at Bowdoin, as well as my professional work, and illustrated to me the interdisciplinary nature of policymaking. I believe that my studies at Bowdoin helped prepare me well for this experience. In the future, I look forward to continuing to learn and contribute to U.S. policymaking as it relates to Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet states. As of March 2020, I am employed as a Social Science Research analyst at the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, New York, NY.

About Me

After graduation from Bowdoin I received a Fulbright ETA grant to Croatia for the 2013-2014 academic year. My time as a Russian major made being a language assistant so much easier. Not because teaching is easy, but studying the Russian language was difficult for me at first, so I was able to empathize with my students when explaining how certain terms and grammatical structures don't translate directly. Also because Croatian and Russian are in the same language family, I had a general understanding of some issues that they may experience. My experience as an area studies major also allowed me to live abroad with a greater understanding and appreciation for the sociocultural space I was inhabiting and tourist sites I visited.

Currently, I work as a Market Researcher in Seattle and stay in touch with the friends I've made throughout my travels.

About Me

I would not have thought at the start of my Bowdoin career that I would major in Russian or that it would turn into my professional path, but it has been a great journey so far. I am an international student from Bulgaria and, having never traveled outside of my country prior to Bowdoin, I was very excited to start my college experience on a different continent. I was looking forward to exploring new subjects, joining new clubs and developing new academic and extracurricular interests. Heavy emphasis on new… and different (the more, the better!).

I had never learned Russian in Bulgaria, still I was not planning on taking any classes that were somehow related to my cultural background. I did, however, take a fascinating class in the spring of my freshman year on Central Asian film and literature that focused on regions and cultures that used to be part of the Soviet Union. That, alongside the genuine enthusiasm and encouragement of Prof. Jane Knox, resulted in my taking up Russian language and, later on, Russian literature classes. A year later, I declared a double major in Russian and Psychology and currently (five years after Bowdoin), I am at the tail end of a Slavic Studies PhD program at Brown University. I am completing my dissertation on spatiality and exile in 20th century Russian poetry.

Being able to continue my studies and to now add teaching Russian to them has been a very rewarding experience. I have spent time in Russia and the Czech Republic and I look forward to soon pursuing a full-time teaching career in Slavic Studies. As I always tell my students, taking a new language is an immensely beneficial experience—not to mention that Russian, despite its linguistic complexities, is a lot of fun to learn! There is a different and deeper understanding of the target culture that comes through learning its language. Sometimes it also makes you reevaluate and appreciate your own culture from a different angle. So, if you’re thinking about taking Russian (or if you—like me back then—are not), don’t hesitate to give it a try.

About Me

About Me

Like so many of us, I fell into Russian accidentally. My grandmother had been a professor of literature and The Brothers Karamazov was one of her favorites. To please her, I read it and found it impossible.

At Bowdoin I majored in history and minored in Africana Studies. I found myself driven to understand how history shapes the ways that peoples and countries view their respective worlds and how they interact. After Bowdoin, I felt I wanted to eventually get my doctorate and so wanted some teaching experience. As a result, I became an ESL teacher in Moscow.

Moscow overwhelmed me that first year. Nobody smiled. The Khrushchovka apartment buildings all looked depressingly the same. And I never knew there could be quite so many varieties of mayonnaise. Then gradually, understanding Russia became my obsession. It really is the land of the two-headed eagle. For me, Russia was beautiful and yet starkly brutal. Deeply intellectual and yet impulsive. Harsh and yet sentimental.

My obsession has led me back to Russia multiple times. It has broadened beyond Russia, leading me to a Fulbright ETA in Ukraine and to studying at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the only Ukrainian research body in the United States. This fall, I will be entering the REEES (Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia) M.A. program at Yale University. I was also fortunate enough to be given a FLAS graduate fellowship that will help fund my continued Russian language study.

My undergraduate education intimately structures my academic relationship with Russia and Russian Studies. Due to the education I got at Bowdoin, I may not always know something, but I have the research skills to figure it out and then synthesize the information. My one regret was that I did not study Russian at Bowdoin.

An Italian exchange student once told me that there are two groups of expats in Moscow: the ones that quickly leave after their task has finished, largely unaffected by Russia. Then there are the others. They complain about so much about Russia: the winters, the bureaucracy, the bluntness. But they keep returning. The frustrating complexity, the weight of history, the acceptance of cognitive dissonance… it all becomes part of them. Perhaps because it echoes who they themselves are. I am part of that latter group. In my opinion, Bowdoin is the perfect place to join that group as well.

About Me

About Me

I graduated in the Russian department in 2009, and most events of my life have somehow circled around Russia since then.  Since my junior year abroad in Irkutsk with Middlebury, I've now been back to Russia for two more long stays: once to teach English in the Caucasus, which was pure good fun and great for my Russian, and once, in 2014-2015, to research and conduct interviews.  This, because two years after Bowdoin, I went to UC Berkeley for a PhD in Russian history.  I had no previous history background, but because Bowdoin prepared me quite well with language, I was able to catch up with my colleagues in history while they struggled with verbs of motion, the genitive plural, and other such Russian grammatical puzzles.  I graduated from Berkeley with my PhD in 2018, then taught in the history department there as a Visiting Lecturer for a couple of years. I am excited to be starting an appointment as Assistant Professor of History at the University of Georgia in Athens in fall 2020, where I will be teaching a range of topics within Soviet and Imperial Russian history, including the history of Soviet nationalities and Cold War history.  Advanced students in the Russian program at Bowdoin, or in the history program, are welcome to write me with questions.
 
The Russian major makes sense for a lot of reasons.  First, because of the small size of the program, students just get a quality of instruction they won't find elsewhere or even in other programs at Bowdoin.  There's little limit on how much Russian you can learn, or how far you can develop your interest in any particular direction.  Second, I think that, despite the post-Cold War delusions of certain short-sighted people, Russia is and will remain a hugely important country, and speaking the language will have important applications in many different spheres of the economy and government for a long time to come.  And finally, Russia is just plain interesting. It is a complex and distinct world civilization, foreign and peculiar enough to retain your interest for life, but accessible and familiar enough that you can a) find work, and b) transfer the skills and knowledge to other aspects of your life.  Both of these things can be said about the language as well: it is complex and distinctive, but accessible to those (like me) who are willing to work, but have no particular brilliance in language-learning.

About Me

In retrospect, speaking Russian in class at Bowdoin was good training for speaking in court. To improve as a Russian speaker, I had to be mindful of declensions and pronunciations unlike anything in the English language, but also willing to make declension and pronunciation mistakes as I practiced speaking aloud with classmates. I've found developing litigation skills similar in the sense that, with the facts and the law in mind, you have to set aside anxiety and perfectionism, stand up, and make the clearest, most accurate presentation you can. As an added bonus, Russian literature includes the most brilliant explorations of crime and morality that I've read.

Studying Russian at Bowdoin remains one of the most enjoyable and rewarding learning experiences I've had. Engaging with such a rich, sophisticated culture and language each morning inspired and motivated me throughout college, and while I don't speak Russian in my job as a trial attorney with the Department of Justice, I still listen to Russian radio stations at night and on travel!

About Me

About Me

Russian language and the curiosity to learn more and more deeply sparked by the Russian department professors and my fellow Russian students have been essential to every step of my career, have taken me so many interesting places, and have helped me pursue work that I love.

After graduating from Bowdoin, I spent 1.5 years in Siberia, in Irkutsk and on Lake Baikal, which were some of the richest experiences of my life so far. I studied Russian, hiked in the Sayan and Khamar-Daban mountain ranges, traveled in Russia and Asia, and met all kinds of interesting people and made dear friends who are still in my life today.

I initially thought I would be pursue environmental work in Russia. Then, during my master’s degree, I interned with a Russian human rights and environmental activist, a position I was able to get because of my Russian language skills. This experience led me to become committed to human rights work, and have spent my career working in most former Soviet countries.

I spent 2 years directing a small Russian human rights organization working with Russian lawyers providing legal aid to victims of the conflicts in Chechnya.

I have been at Human Rights Watch since 2005. I am based in New York, but have conducted research and advocacy on human rights violations across most countries of the former Soviet region: topics like armed conflicts, police violence, refugees, media freedom, labor rights, children's rights women's rights, migrants' rights, and led campaigns to highlight the human rights abuses associated with Russia's hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Since, both the International Olympic Committee and FIFA have established human rights departments and made human rights an aspect of all future event bids.

I have since expanded my work to a different portfolio of supervising a team of researchers advocating for the human rights of people with disabilities and older people globally. I am still deeply involved in work in Russia, Caucasus, and Central Asia on these topics.

I am so grateful to the Russian department of my era, especially my classmates, Hugh, Gary, Rachel, Amy, Eric, and others and to Professor Knox-Voina and Professor Miller. You are all stars and inspirations. Obnimayu vas vsekh!

What have you been doing since graduation?

Since graduation, my skills in Russian have served me well at odd times. I work as a public school teacher in Helena Montana...I have been called upon to explain the school policy on diabetic medications, translate awkward parent phone calls, and to explain what is meant by a "Time of Troubles."

In each of these occasions, I am reminded that it's not really the language proficiency that I acquired at Bowdoin, but rather the passion for the study and understanding of another culture that really matters to me; the sharing of poetry, study of history, the need to comprehend our similarities and differences.

What have you been doing since graduation?

While I had studied Russian in preparatory school, it was Bowdoin that catapulted me to a career in Russia. While studying abroad during my junior year in St Petersburg, as Russia transitioned from its Soviet past, I understood that Russia would offer not only professional opportunities, but open a whole world of adventure, personal maturation and character growth.

At Bowdoin, I learned that language isn’t merely words and grammar, but art and literature. As part of my Russian major, I took coursework in Russian cinema, learned to distinguish between Malevich and Melnikov, and pursued related topics in history and government. As my Russia career started, I grasped quickly that language is not only about an ability to recount and piece together subjects and verbs, but also to express thoughts, emotions and ideas. Most importantly, one learns to communicate, not just speak. For nearly twenty years, I have been blessed to work in some of Russia’s best companies, a career that has taken me from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, from the Arctic to Altai. Not only has the study of Russian influenced my career, but the study of Russia came to define my livelihood and my family life.
 
I currently work for a company called AFK Sistema, which is one of Russia’s largest investment firms. I joined the group in 2006 at their largest asset, MTS, the leading telecommunications firm in Russia, where I managed corporate finance and investor relations for 12 years. I now work for the parent company, where I oversee a number of initiatives involving non-commercial partners, helping attract investment and working with some of our non-Russian assets. I also sit on the board of MTS’s Ukraine asset, which serves about 20 million customers.

What have you been doing since graduating?

Since Bowdoin I've gone on to a Masters in Slavic Literature and Linguistics and then one in Library Science. Currently I'm the Special Formats Cataloger at University of Missouri, Kansas City, specializing in sound recordings. My degrees in Russian and Slavic linguistics make me invaluable here where a surprising number of recordings, scores, books and other materials in those languages come through and I'm the only one that can work with them.

What have you been doing since graduation?

I am a professor at the United States Naval Academy since 1993. I believe I may have been the first Russian major as I designed it myself in 1986. I was class of 87 but graduated early. My research has been on Russian homeless children and military anthropology. My Russian major as well as studies in the summer at Middlebury College defined my scholarship and present day work.

What have you been doing since graduation?

The Russian Department was very small (Burt Rubin) when I arrived at Bowdoin. Jane Knox joined the department the year after I did. Having had three years of high school Russian, I appreciated the very small classes, and in my last year, tutorials in advanced work. I loved the language and literature, and did a summer at Middlebury Russian language school after graduating. I went on to teach high school science (!) and then to a Ph.D. in psychology. I am a professor down the road at Bates College. But, I still have my collection of Russian literature, some in Russian, and hope to take my first return trip to Russia in the next year or so. My language skills are rusty, to say the least, but my passion for the material hasn't abated. I have managed to incorporate some Russian literature into seminars on mental health, covering all the bases!

What have you been doing since graduation?

I was a Russian major at Bowdoin at a time when it was just a one-person department and a Russian major was not available. When I entered Bowdoin as a freshman in 1963, I had studied Russian for three years in high school (Boston Latin School, Boston, MA). My instructor at Bowdoin was Maurice Levin. He took a liking to me because of my previous Russian language experience and urged me to attend the 8-week summer Russian Studies School at Indiana University in the summer of 1965. 

I returned to Bowdoin as a music major in my junior year but was very dissatisfied with that major. One day early in the semester I happened to speak with Professor Fritz Koln, an esteemed professor of German. He told me of a student at Bowdoin during World War II days for whom a special major was created, and he urged me to approach the Recording Committee of the college and petition them to allow me to major in Russian. I did so and was successful. My coursework included the Russian language, Russian literature and basic German. At the end of the first semester of my junior year, I dropped out of college due to academic failures.

Four of the next five years (1966-1970) I spent in the army as part of the Army Security Agency. I was sent to Monterey, CA to the Defense Language Institute, where I was placed in the nine-month Intermediate Russian course. I finished with a 95 average and the Pushkin Prize for Excellence. After further security training in Texas I went to Germany from the fall of 1967 to May of 1970, where I monitored and transcribed Russian military broadcasts. I also expanded upon my knowledge of German and became fairly proficient in that language. I returned to Bowdoin for the spring semester 1971 and finished up in a year, officially receiving my degree in 1972. 

I had hopes of teaching Russian as a career but I became involved with an organization called West End House where I had been a camper and counselor since 1958. I have been part of that organization ever since. I kept up my Russian to some extent by speaking with Russian immigrants who had come into the Boston area and were looking for recreational opportunities at the Boys and Girls Club in the Allston area where I work. I also occasionally spoke to Russian campers at our camp in Parsonsfield, Maine, including a group from Chernobyl through the Samantha Smith Peace Center. I still spend the summers at the camp in Maine as Executive Director.