There are four recipients of the 2025 Best Russian Language Student Award. This award is given to students who have excelled in their Russian courses as they have shown dedication towards learning the challenging language. This year’s awardees recently completed their first and second years of Russian.
Sophia Grechishkin is a first-year marine biology major, and having grown up in the states, her primary language is English. However, her father was born in Russia and would speak Russian to her and her sister often throughout their upbringing, sparking an interest in the language and culture. Sophia was introduced to Russian thanks to her father’s heritage, and it wasn’t until college that Sophia was able to pursue Russian in an academic setting, something she looked specifically into when considering her path. Through her Russian language education, Sophia reflected on how it has made her feel more secure in her identity.
“I know that if I want, if I become a teacher, I think it'd be amazing if I could communicate with the majority of my students, at last, of course, the connection to my culture,” Sophia said.
Compared to her major-specific courses, Russian provided an intimate and supportive atmosphere to make close connections.
“It's just like a totally different environment. It almost feels like high school, but only in the good ways, where it's a small group of dedicated peers who you're going to see every day,” Sophia said.
Ruth Blinderman is a second-year student majoring in Education Studies with a concentration in Multilingual/Language. She was born in Russia but lost the language during her upbringing in the United States. While her family members have offered to teach her Russian language, Ruth knew that the structure of a classroom would function more effectively. Thanks to her time in her Russian courses, Ruth is now able to understand cultural inside jokes with her mother and communicate with her grandmother, who is currently in Russia, via WhatsApp.
“My family is super encouraging, especially when they're really impressed by something I say, then [I’m] like, ‘Okay, yeah. I can do it,’” Ruth said.
Cody Pender is a fourth-year majoring in anthropology and minoring in Russian. He is a two-time winner of the Best Russian Language Student award, in addition to receiving the Slavic Excellence Prize this year. The Slavic Excellence Prize is awarded to students who are nominated by professors through the submission of a paper for their class. Cody’s submission came from “Ways of Feeling,” a Slavic department course offered this past winter. The class requires students to examine emotional expressions in different cultures, and Cody analyzed Russian-Soviet author Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita.
As a shoutout to his professor, Cody touched on the impact of Professor Valentina Zaitseva.
“You could just see every day how much she loves teaching Russian, and how much you know she really wants you to feel the same,” Cody said.
Cody wants Russian to play a role in his future, even if he doesn’t know what that looks like yet.
“I really don't want to lose the Russian I've learned when I graduate, and I want to keep learning it,” Cody said.