CREES

* For questions regarding the goals and the design of the Program, please contact the Faculty sponsors at Trinity College Katherine Lahti and Carol Any at katherine.lahti@trincoll.edu, carol.any@trincoll.edu
* For questions regarding the Moscow site, available courses, potential internships, housing, please contact the on-site Director Valentina Apresjan at valentina.apresjan@gmail.com
* For application forms and questions regarding grades and credit transfer please contact the International Programs Director at Trinity College Lisa Sapolis at Lisa.Sapolis@trincoll.edu

We designed our program in Moscow to address the shortcomings of other study programs in Russia that our students had attended in the past. We are especially proud of two unique features: (1) a complete course of study that can be tailored to students with various academic interests and majors as well as various levels of Russian language proficiency, and (2) a core course that brings students into contact with illustrious guest speakers from government and cultural life.

The program began in 2002 with a group of six students from Trinity and from Wesleyan University. It runs every Spring semester. Our students take courses at two of Moscow's premier academic institutions, the Gorky Institute of Literature and the Russian State University of the Humanities (RSUH). Students may choose to live in a home stay or in a dormitory at RSUH.

To be eligible for the program, students must have studied Russian for at least one semester, and taken one Russian Studies course in English.

The program consists of the following:
Core course, taken by all students, which consists of three modules.
* Module 1, "Political Forces and Cultural Change in Russia Today," is offered as a weekly seminar-supper at the Gorky Institute. Each week an important figure from public life is brought in as a guest speaker.
* Module 2, "Moscow Yesterday and Today," is offered in the form of weekly walking tours with accompanying readings. The walking tours include cultural and historical tours led by professional art historians, as well as a choice of social tours to such places as an orphanage, a nursing home, and a prison, which help students understand the life and problems of contemporary Russian society.
* Module 3, "Historic St. Petersburg," is a series of walking tours in St. Petersburg covering history, architecture, and literature.

Individual seminar on the topic of students' choice led by a scholar in the appropriate field. Topics that students have taken in the past include 19th century Russian literature; Russian folklore; the Chechen wars; perestroika under Gorbachev; and the former Islamic republics of the Soviet Union. We can arrange a seminar on virtually any topic in the humanities if notified by the end of November. For those students who major in mathematics or physics, we set up courses with the Math-in-Moscow Program, a highly recognized program taught by eminent Russian scientists.

Russian language classes taught by specialists from the Russian University of Humanities where our students also have a chance to socialize with Russian peers.

Internship, which allows students to explore Russia through working in a company or institution alongside Russian people. Our internships include both charity and business appointments, based on students' needs and interests. Some internship options include working in human rights institutions, teaching English or office and research work in companies. Some students have found excellent post-graduation jobs in their internship placements!

Intensive Russian prep course. This is a three-week survival skills course that students take upon their arrival in Moscow at the Institute of Russian Language and before the formal study of the semester begins.

The resident program coordinator in Moscow is Dr. Valentina Apresjan. Dr. Apresjan, a native of Moscow, holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Southern California and is on the research staff at the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She has an outstanding facility in English and knowledge of American culture, and so is in a unique position to help our students bridge the culture gap. Dr. Apresjan acts as Trinity's liaison with RSUH and the Gorky Institute, monitors students' general academic progress, arranges and monitors students' internships, helps the students negotiate bureaucratic tangles and in general assists them in dealing with culture shock. She also accompanies the group on a two-week trip to Petersburg at the end of the program.

Because we do not run a big program, we are able to provide a lot of individual attention to our students, from arranging seminars according to their interests to giving them personal attention whenever they need it. Dr. Apresjan meets the students upon arrival at Sheremetevo Airport, shows them around the city, and creates a program of recreational activities. The group makes two trips during the semester, visits music halls, theaters, and clubs, holds informal meetings with Russian peers, goes out to restaurants, ice-skating and (for the adventurous) even horseback riding.