Rachel Rosenfeld
Greenpeace- Russa
Spring 2006

I worked in the department concerned for global climate change. I also volunteered in the department fighting to preserve Lake Baikal. We organized protests and protested in opposition to the oil pipe line near Baikal. Our campaign contributed to Putin’s declaration that the pipeline must be at least 40 km from Baikal. It was amazing to see a non-profit workplace in Russia. Internships are a great recommendation and way to really involve yourself, to be passionate about your coursework. It was a lot of hours for a requirement, even too many sometimes in addition to other coursework, but in the end it was interesting and meaningful. I recommend internships.

Calvin Garner
The Glasnost Defense Foundation
Spring 2005

The Glasnost Defense Foundation is a non-profit monitoring group that works to track the violations of journalists' rights in Russia and the former Soviet Union.  The workplace is a very relaxed and almost entirely Russian speaking environment, the one notable exception being the founder and president Aleksei Kirilovich Simonov who will occasionally address the intern in English. Tasks there included compiling a database of all foreign newspapers that had bureaus in Moscow.  This internship site is appropriate for those who have a specific interest in or experience with human rights work.  It is essential to map out a plan of the intern's responsibilities beforehand.

The International Investment Center is an NGO with special UN consulting status based in Yaroslavl.  Their main operations consist of regional, national and international business consulting and local and national political research.  As a future financial economist, I was more interested in the business than in the political learning opportunities offered by the experience, and therefore the majority of my work consisted of helping with various commercial projects.  The most important of them has been the development of an Electronic Trade Point for central Russia, whose planned inauguration is set for the beginning of the summer 2004.  Moreover, I have had the possibility to meet with many of the center's partners, which allowed me to gain insight into many different aspects of the Russian business community and to establish many useful contacts with representatives of the business and political world.

Eric SIMANEK
Yaroslavl Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Spring 2004

When I arrived at my internship on the first day, I was asked to come up with a way that I could help their organization.  I began trying to make contacts with people at the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow as well as at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.  I never heard back from the Chamber in Moscow, but there was expressed interest from the Vermont Chamber.  After an exchange of emails without any concrete plans being made, I sent an email with a suggestion about trying to send students from Yaroslavl to Vermont during the summers to work at the various resorts and camps.  I never received any response to this and our contact dissolved.  I filled most of my time with translations of technical documents, as well as various small projects that I was assigned on a daily basis.  These projects included searching for information on the internet, composing information for the web-site and searching in databases.  Language acquisition was very strong, as we communicated only in Russia, and I was exposed to a lot of different themes through the translation work.

Bryan WILSON
Center for Justice Assistance
Spring 2002

I am an International Politics and Economics and Russian Language Double Major in Middlebury's Bachelor of the Arts program. I had the pleasure of spending much of the second of two semesters in Russia at the Center for Justice Assistance. This is a fairly young, fairly small law reform organization under the umbrella of INDEM Foundation and the Vera Institute of New York's International arm. The headquarters, located near the Kitai Gorod metro station, is split into two offices and is shared seasonally by between 5 and 8 professionals. Due to its size and relative novelty, the CJA pursues its primary initiatives with a great deal of cohesion amongst the staff and a sense that they've still got a lot to prove. The result is not unspectacular: a genuinely efficient and effective NGO. The director is and will always be an American as the CJA's main funding agents are Vera and the Open Society Institute so you have the opportunity to apprentice, as it were, under a non-native with native-like experience. Undoubtedly invaluable. The rest of the (all-Russian) personnel are equally as supportive.

Currently, the CJA is involved in two specific law reform projects. The older of which involves a series of measures to truncate the average pre-trial detention service in Nizhny Novgorod (through the building of interagency networks to facility communication in the investigative process). The second, in the early stages of development, is an initiative to reorganize the way crime is reported, registered and documented in an attempt to improve police-community relations. To that end, the CJA hosts periodic colloquia and symposia attended by all kinds of bigwigs from the ministries and the private sector. As intern, you are given carte-blanche not only to involve yourself in the planning process (logistically and with respect to its agenda) but to attend, to participate (if reticently). I was asked on a number of occasions to translate documents, press-memos and expository brochures with direct relevance to these projects and their latest developments. The bulk of my work however was expended upon an independent research project. Not unlike business development in the private sector, NGOs have staff assigned to the innovative process, market creation, trajectory, etc. My job was to reference the viability of several yet-to-be launched initiatives: introducing Judicial Clerks to the procuracy, reformatting the crime registration paperwork, and other transferable advancements in justice provision. Perhaps 50% of this research and 100% of everything else (including interactions in the work place) was conducting exclusively in the Russian language. This not only helped me gain proficiency and confidence but a genuine impetus to learn. A practical application. An investment. For this I am grateful to the CJA and its Director Melanie Peyser. I strongly encourage your forwarding a resume and stepping in for a chat with the administration.

Jessica L. BROZYNA 
National Public Radio
Spring 2002

Before I decided to intern at NPR I had known very little about the organization other than the fact that everyone knew of it and respected it. I saw the position to be a great window to learn about Russia, the news industry, and to improve my Russian language abilities. My time at the office was spent completing assigned tasks, researching story ideas, watching the news, reading newspapers, transferring the address book onto the computer, and just having wonderfully long interesting conversations with Boris and Irena, the two Russian staff members. Each activity contributed to my experience in different ways.
Of the assigned tasks, I consider my research assignments to be the most rewarding and eye opening. Not only did I learn how to research a story using both English and Russian sources, but I also learned so many random things such as how to reserve a zero gravity flight and that Roman Abramovich was the governor of the Chukotka province, which I also learned was right across from Alaska. Even if I never use some of the knowledge I have gained for any real purpose in the future, the experience of obtaining it (including fixing the office printer and wearing down the pages of the Russian-English Dictionary) will definitely be valuable.

Benjamin GOLNIK
NPR - Moscow
Spring 1999

It was a very small office. There was only actually one correspondent who was also the bureau chief, and there was a Russian translator and also an office manager. So there were three of us in the office and initially the bureau chief really didn't know if she wanted an intern so I had to do some convincing that I could do busy work. There were a lot of office tasks like filing using Russian. A lot of times I would go to a news conference and I'd set up a microphone and take sound, then go back to the offices and simply take the Russian and write out in English a summary of what the main points were. I'd give that to her and she'd use that for processing a story. I also had to prepare to go to Voronezh, where I studied first semester. We were to do a series of stories, about six or eight down there. On the weekend we were set to go, the cold war broke out in Kosovo. Immediately the focus shifted to Kosovo, and National Public Radio wanted the bureau chief to be in the office all the time. At that point, my role was increased because I got to do a lot of stuff that she would have done otherwise. I went to a couple of press conferences with a lot of leading politicians. Egor Gaidar, the First Prime Minister of Russia, was at one of these conferences, as was Grigory Yavlinski, head of a democratic movement. So I was able to go to these conferences and actually ask questions of the politicians using Russian. Then I'd go back and do the same thing to the offices and basically transcribe the translation, give it to my boss, and then she would write the stories up.

Other interesting experiences: I went to the US Embassy on the first day of the Kosovo protest, and there were a couple thousand Russians there holding up America as the enemy and breaking the windows with beer bottles and burning flags and all sorts of stuff. I probably shouldn't have been there, but I recorded sound of all these anti-American protests and brought them back. The sound that I recorded on these occasions was later used for the stories that the bureau chief produced for National Public Radio that were then aired in the US

As far as my language skills go, the internship helped me immensely: posing questions at news conferences in Russian, being with Russian journalists, learning the journalistic side of the language. That was a very big upside. It also helped me to be confident in my use of Russian. When you study a foreign language, youÕre a little reluctant to use it, but I was forced to go out on the street with a tape recorder and ask people what they felt about the current political climate in Russia. So that really forced me to use the language and have some sort of confidence with it.

Since then I've used my work at NPR and the media in Russia to apply for a few fellowships for next year examining freedom of the press in Russia, so for these projects I've used the bureau chief as a reference. I've stayed in contact with her by email and on the phone, and she has served as a mentor for me. That has been a very positive influence. When I came back to the US and was in Washington, DC, I went to National Public Radio's offices and got a tour and talked to people there, which was very exciting. I will continue to maintain good ties with my former boss, and she'll send me relevant things that are happening that she can get from Russia that I wouldn't otherwise have access to. In the future, I would possibly like to pursue something in this field. I've done some stuff here at Middlebury with radio. This experience whetted my appetite and gave me the first chance to become involved with it.

As far as advice, I would say that the cliche that you get out of it what you put into it is really true. At first I was nothing more than just a warm body. Sometimes I'd show up and there would be nothing for me to do. So it was really by doing these mundane office tasks and allowing a mutual trust to build up over time that I was able to go out. I went to the state Duma when they had impeachment hearings against Boris Yeltsin. These sorts of events were really exciting, but the opportunity to participate only came over time once we worked on our relationship. Put in your time with the language, have the self-confidence, and don't be shy. I think I gained some respect through that from the Russians and from the other cultures seeing that you were there as a foreigner trying to work.

John TOBIN
United States-Russian Investment Fund - Moscow
Spring 1999

My name is John Tobin and I worked for the United States-Russian Investment Fund, which is a United States-subsidized fund in Moscow. Their mission is to promote small-business lending through local institutions in Moscow to small enterprise and entrepreneurs: basically trying to help generate a small business class in Russia, which really has never existed and is sort of lurching forward. In August of 1998, many of you know that there was a pretty bad banking crisis so a lot of people lost faith in Russian banking institutions. When I got there they were thinking about what to do with an extra person and they put me in charge of the one-man marketing team and asked me to try to come with a way to generate knowledge about what they do through banks. What I decided to do was to put together some pretty nice presentations, faxes I could send and brochures and pamphlets I could take around Moscow to several trade shows, and just sort of try to talk to people and educate people about possibilities for small businesses in Russia.

So how did this enhance my language and cultural learning process? It forced me to go out and talk to people. It forced me to use Russian with business people in Moscow. I actually met a lot of nice people, traded business cards, there were a lot of people interested in selling air-conditioners, people selling refrigerators, people running sort of the legal side of personal defense in Moscow. So I got to meet a lot of different people from different industries, and sort of promote small business. I explained to them what the United States-Russian Investment Fund does and put them in contact with lending institutions in Moscow. I guess there were fruits to my labor directly and indirectly, according to my boss. He did get a lot of new calls after I started my program through the summer, which was extremely nice to hear. If I have any advice to people interested in doing something like this, I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you think you are going to get put in a position doing one thing and you end up doing something totally different. I was more interested in working with them on their direct investments (they also do a lot of direct investments into businesses in Moscow and Russia). I thought I would be more interested in sort of the number-crunching side of things, the economic side of things and studying businesses and thinking about how much money to put in what types of businesses. But actually doing something like this I found a lot more fascinating: talking to the city and just networking with people in Russian.

Julia TOPALIAN 
The Institute of Contemporary Art - Moscow
Spring 1999

My name is Julia Topalian, and I am an International Studies major focusing in Russian and Eastern European Studies with a concentration in language and literature. I interned in Moscow in the spring. I worked for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow, which is basically a Russian organization with international affiliations. The man who ran it was a prominent figure in the Russian art culture. It was a tiny gallery, but he also helped to carry exhibitions from the Tretyakov Gallery, which is the big Russian Art Museum in Moscow, to smaller galleries and banks around the city. My boss also ran the only modem art education program in Moscow. They held classes twice a week and there was a Saturday workshop which I went to once. They were bringing Russian artists in to show Russian art students modem techniques and art such as sub-screening, etching, and things that the traditional art schools in Moscow wouldn't teach.

My boss didn't really know what to do with me. He didn't quite understand the idea of an American student coming in and just trying to learn what he did. I basically did a lot of research for grants because he received a grant from the Soros foundation five to ten years ago which was running out. So I helped to research for further grants and set up exhibitions in the galleries. I was sort of taken around as this token American, so I was able to meet lots of figures in the Russian art scene. I got to go to lots of openings and gallery talks. Also, one of the things Iosef, my boss, did was that he tried to bring in foreigners to learn about their art education programs. I helped to translate for Swedish people and German art students and teachers that came to Russia while I was there. This definitely helped my Russian immensely. Although my boss spoke English and always wanted to practice it, most people spoke Russian. So I was constantly forced to have sometimes really serious intellectual discussions in Russian. I definitely learned a lot of vocabulary that I wouldn't have learned otherwise. I definitely learned how to find ways to make myself busy. My boss didn't always have things for me to do so I would come up with things to help him, ways to find more research and different things to read. I always managed to find things to do even though I wasn't always given them. That would be my advice, especially to someone going to Russia: people don't always have a set of jobs that we're accustomed to here. You definitely have to learn to adjust to that, and to make up your own if that's what you need.

Kara TSUBOI
CNN - Moscow
Spring 1999

My name is Kara Tsuboi and I am an International Studies Major here at Middlebury. My concentration is Russian language and history. I was in Moscow for the entire year, but interned my second semester with CNN, the Moscow bureau in downtown Moscow. Like Ben said, his internship was very similar to mine in that they weren't necessarily used to having interns and women there, and I thought I was just going to be making coffee the entire time and doing photocopies. In fact, they gave me a lot of responsibilities and I started as sort of a producer in training; meaning that I was supposed to think of story ideas, research them, find contacts, help with interviewing and then eventually write the script and help produce it, edit it and put together the final package.

I did all of this for the first couple of months, and it was really interesting. I learned a lot about Russian culture and had to think about things that might be interesting to show the American public. But different from Ben's experience, when Kosovo finally hit the end of March, my duties definitely decreased. I was not given as many things to do since they were not focusing as much on feature stories, but doing hard news. I didn't feel like I got in the way, but I also didn't have responsibilities. I'd just help with the translating and with the transcribing. It wasn't as interesting but I still got a good glimpse of what goes on in the international journalism bureau.

My internship definitely helped my language; it forced me to go out there and speak with people whom I normally wouldn't converse with. It definitely taught me more vocabulary than just the basic "can I buy some bread" grammar class vocabulary. In terms of helping me culturally, it's interesting to work for an American bureau in a foreign country and really be a part of what they show Americans. I am sure the CNN that you watch here and the Moscow that you all know are so different from the real Moscow. It's really interesting to help blend those two worlds and try to show an accurate representation. It was a wonderful internship.

I am really interested in journalism as a future career and this internship helped me realize that it is something I want to pursue. I love the stress; I love the business. I got to see a lot of that in the Moscow bureau since it's not that large. I am taking my interest in journalism a little further. Here at Middlebury I am writing a thesis on the history of journalism in Russia and next year I hope to pursue my interest in the work field, maybe in Moscow again, maybe in New York--we'll see. My best advice for anyone interested in going to Moscow, specifically in working for a small bureau, is just to take advantage of the opportunities. If you were an intern for example in Atlanta working for CNN, you would be making coffee and doing photocopies. But in a small bureau in a large city where there aren't too many Americans and you're all working together, you really have the opportunity to learn a lot and to make some interesting contacts. I had a wonderful time and thank you for the opportunity.

Kelley FOLEY
USAID - Moscow
Spring 1998

Kelly worked in the United States Agency for International Development, at the Office of Economic Reform, Business Development Division. Her main assignment was to create a project summary paper detailing the activities of the Small Business Development Division, and she fulfilled it successfully. As her supervisor wrote, "Kelly demonstrated a competent level of professionalism, the ability to learn quickly and the desire to study USAID's programs focusing on the development issues surrounding small business growth in the Russian Federation. Her specific duties were to create a brochure for the division's activities and to organize, research and ultimately synthesize success stories from the division's myriad sources. Kelly fulfilled these tasked, took initiative, and was responsive to directions given to her." Kelly's supervisor believes this internship was a very helpful program for both the intern and the host organization.

Michelle MATHESON
International Finance Corporation - Moscow
Spring 1998

Michelle worked in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) , as an intern for the IFC's Third Party Arbitration Court (TPAC) project. As her supervisor wrote, "Michelle was responsible for many aspects of the operational oversight of the TPAC project. Michelle served as a primary organizer of information on the project, developing a file of press articles on the project and designing a template for reporting such articles in monthly reports to the donor. Michelle also created the template for reporting TPAC cases to the donor, and drafted the reports for the first 30 cases adjudicated by the TPAC. Michelle established and maintained a filing system for the TPAC project for reports and general correspondence. Michelle helped draft numerous items of Russian-language correspondence between IFC and our counterpart organization in Rostov, Yugagrofond. Michelle translated several documents outlining the principles and the procedures of TPAC operation, showing good understanding of the terminology and issues involved for an individual with no legal background. Michelle also translated 2 press articles about the TPAC which were submitted to the donor with minimum editing."

Catherine NEELEY
Eurasia Foundation - Moscow
Summer 1998

The Eurasia Foundation is a large non-governmental organization that distributes grants throughout the NIS. They are funded by USAID and private donations. I interned at the Eurasia Foundation's Moscow Regional Office in summer 1998. My duties were tailored to my expertise and the office's needs. I helped revamp two newsletters, plan their five-year anniversary celebration, and take minutes (in Russian) at meetings. Through my contacts with the Eurasia Foundation and outside of the scope of my internship, I was able to work as an independent evaluator. I visited one grant site (in Petrozavodsk) and interacted with about 25 participants or organizers of the EF-funded program. The final report that I prepared was used to determine whether that organization would be eligible to receive more grant aid from EF in the future.

Yaroslavl, Russia

Alexandra DUMOUCHEL
Yaroslavl School #4
Spring 2000

The internship I completed for the Dillon Dunwalke Fellowship was conducted in State School No. 4, in Yaroslavl Russia. This was a Russian Grammar School, where special emphasis was placed on English Language and Literature from the third form through the eleventh. My position was as an English Language teacher in two fifth form classes and as an English Literature teacher in two tenth form classes.

Although I actually conducted lessons in English, all of my dealings with Tatiana Pavlovna, the teacher with whom I worked, were in Russian. Between classes, I spoke Russian with my students and during classes I often explained concepts or translated new words for my students in Russian. They taught me as much vocabulary as I them, if not more. I felt that it was very valuable to my understanding of Russian youth culture, and by extension, Russian culture as a whole to see first-hand how significantly their education system differs from ours. Being on the other side of the desk, as it were, I was able to appreciate many differences which I had previously found, at best, baffling. For example, whereas the American system of education places a lot of emphasis on creativity and thinking outside the box, the Russian educational system is one of rote learning. This experience has been ideal, as I plan to pursue a career either in education or in international relations.

In addition to teaching me more about the culture, this particular internship really helped to alleviate my feelings of isolation as a foreigner. On my birthday, on Womens Day and on my last day my students threw parties, brought me presents, and some students recited poetry for me. They were always stopping me in the halls to chat and my younger boys and girls often gave me hugs in the mornings. Overall, the working and personal environments at the Fourth School were well-constructed and extremely pleasant.

I would advise any Middlebury student going overseas to strongly consider a second semester internship, rather than first, because by the second semester you live in a foreign country you've ideally found a niche and are looking to focus your attentions somewhere beyond your academics. I felt that my internship was very well organized and Nana, our Moscow internship coordinator was readily available and very helpful.

Arlette FOY
International Investment Center - Yaroslavl
Spring 2000

My name is Arlette Foy and my major is international politics and economics. My location site was Yaroslavl, Russia. I interned during my second semester (spring 2000) for the International Investment Fund, a non-profit organization that worked on a variety of different projects throughout the region, including local political campaigns and the ban the landmines project.

Because the fund utilizes a section of the Russian language I was not using at home or in the classroom, I learned a new section of practical vocabulary. This helped me tremendously because I am interested in working abroad in this sector after graduation. Further, the people I worked for were wonderful and made every day worth going.

Some of the main things I learned at my internship: I learned how to interact in new aspect of everyday Russian, about Russians interest in international affairs and politics, and what domestic politics interest the Russians. I do hope to utilize this information in a future job in Eastern Europe, either working for a nonprofit or small business's organizations. Additionally, I learned how to use a Russian keyboard quickly and easily.

If I was working at an internship, I think it is important to know that some overseas companies don't really know what interns do for the firms. The best way to deal with this problem is to simply work with them the best you can. Even just observing a foreign company can be a valuable lesson. My advice to people organizing the internships, is make sure that there is enough work for the number of interns assigned to a specific place.

Pauline GADEN
International Investment Center - Yaroslavl
Spring 2000

My internship took place at the International Investment Center in Yaroslavl. The Center is a not-for-profit organization which took part in both economic and political activity within the Yaroslavl oblast, or region. While IIC did participate in the development of the city's private sector, my internship dealt more with the political sector. IIC ran various local political campaigns (it sponsored both candidates running for the State Duma in Moscow and for those running for the regional Duma in Yaroslavl.), and initiated world-wide cooperation efforts against the spread of war. I was given a considerable amount of material to translate, namely for a children's drawing contest entitled "In the Defense of Peace." The Center is hoping to spread this contest to various countries around the world, including to the United States. The translations of various contest activities are to be posted on a website which has not yet been set up. Aside from my involvement in the organization of the contest, I was given the opportunity to study the intricate process of Russian politics first hand. I took political opinion polls of Yaroslavl citizens, helped in the analysis of such polls, sat in on a political fraud trial. All the interns at the Investment Center were interviewed on Russian television and radio shows.

I thought my internship was an essential part of my study abroad experience. Because I had already spent one semester in the country, I felt fully prepared to start my internship in the spring. Unlike many other internships, this one forced me to communicate only in Russian, thus further developing my language skills. Working in the political sector helped me enhance my "political" vocabulary, a skill which I was able to transfer to my studies and will certainly use in my career. In terms of "cultural immersion," the internship allowed me to better understand Russia's political culture and judge the importance today's Russians attach to political change and development.

The fact that my internship was very relevant to my studies and to my career goals made me value it that much more. It is not everyday that an American college student is given the opportunity to take political polls of Russian citizens. For the first time I was interviewed on television and asked to share my views on world peace. I was made aware of the desperation felt by Russia's people when it came to politics, I felt the immense hope they placed in their newly elected president. The lessons I learned, though they may be difficult to describe concretely, have already proved themselves to be very useful. I already made use of my Russian experience this summer, while I interned at a non-profit organization in Washington, DC and dealt with politics in Russia and Eurasia.

This internship was invaluable. Study abroad should not be only about classes - that is not how a person will become immersed in a foreign culture. My internship allowed me to perform those tasks that are normally reserved exclusively to Russians. But more importantly, I was able to assess the progress made by Russians in their advancement towards democracy. The non-governmental/non-profit sector is still in its initial phase of development; organizations of the type are just getting started despite great negative pressure coming from the government. I hope to continue to be in contact with the people I worked with as their organization grows and merges into the Russian political world.

Emily HILLENBRAND
Golden Ring Newspaper - Yaroslavl
Spring 1999

My name is Emily, I am an IS/history major and I spent last year in Russia. In the spring term I was in Yaroslavl, where I worked for the Golden Ring Newspaper, which is a small local newspaper. It was an excellent experience for me because I was constantly from day one over my head linguistically. I was treated as pretty much one of them and not given any special treatment because I was a student or an American or an intern. On day one, my boss sat me down at his desk and said "This is the newspaper we are, this is sort of the news we've been in, and here is a book on journalism. I'd like you to go home and read this". And then he shoved the phone at me and said: "I'd like you to call information, find the number of this place and find out how many people were taken to the drunk tank last night. If you don't mind, we need to print this out in about twenty minutes."

The telephone part was definitely the most difficult and the most frustrating because my conversational Russian was fine at that point, but it's a different story when you're on the phone. You have to make yourself clear immediately, and even though you do make yourself clear they are not apt to give you the answer, or they are not necessarily going to understand you, and you have to ask twenty times how to spell it. It was difficult, but I got to see a lot more of the city than I would have otherwise. I found out about events that I wouldn't have found out about on my own. I went to a meeting of the survivors of the Leningrad siege and wrote an article on that. I sat in on an intermission session. It was a meeting of one of the Communist groups in Russia. They were discussing setting bread prices and many times I would not understand a word of it and had to take a code of silence.

I did write articles, and if they liked them, they published them. If they didn't, they would have me working on another task. I found myself getting much more involved in the city on my own; I would go to a concert and try to get an interview with the conductor afterwards, and I would find myself taking notes and writing something afterwards. I did write one article about a student that they really liked. We had a student with us who was older; he was 38 and he was an ex-Microsoft employee and he was working with an orphanage there. There were very excited about that. I am glad I got to write about that; it was a rewarding experience.

Sarah WAYBRIGHT
Golden Ring Newspaper - Yaroslavl
Spring 1998

As a Dillon Dunwalke Fellow, I worked at the Golden Ring Newspaper (Zolotoe Koltso) in Yaroslavl, Russia, during the spring semester of 1998. As an intern, I went to the office on a daily basis and had numerous responsibilities. I attended various press conferences, demonstrations and Communist marches. I translated English advertising materials into Russian. I assisted my colleagues with their newspaper articles, usually providing an opinion or an explanation as to how the things work in America. For example, when there was a debate about restructuring the central water system; I was asked in detail about the functional aspects of the water and electric system in my town. When the issues of religious and sexual education in the school were being discussed, I was asked to speak about the role these issues play in American schools. I also wrote my own ariticles, one of which was published. Most of my time was spent writing, typing and editing these articles into their final form. I had a wonderful experience at the newspaper and am now contemplating journalism as a possible career. I enjoyed the time spent with my colleagues and I appreciated the amount of responsibility they gave me. Above all, it was extremely satisfying to use my Russian in a non-academic setting.

Samantha WEBB
Yaroslavl Administration
Spring 1998

I was assigned to work in the Yaroslavl Administration, which is the main government body in the city. Within the Administration, I was placed more specifically in the Office of Foreign Investment. Our task as interns was to translate, from Russian to English, various documents that described the economic potential of the area and the investment projects already underway. These translated documents were eventually to be put on the Internet so that potential investors could access them and would hopefully be encouraged to invest in the area.

Specifically, I translated materials about the "fruits of the land": number of lakes, miles of rivers, flora and fauna. If I ran into difficulty while translating, the translators at the Administration were very willing to help me, but I worked at home and not in the office with them. I then typed up my final translation at the University and turned it in to the office at the Administration. We had deadlines that were very manageable for the amount of translation expected from us and our "bosses" were extremely friendly and accomodating.