"I can say with full confidence that adding intensive language studies to my academic career has been a life-changing and professional career-enhancing decision that I'm grateful to UCLA and Russian Flagship for offering!"

Juliette Oliver is a 3rd year Russian Studies major and Digital Humanities minor. She writes, “Looking back at my first quarter at UCLA, I would have never been able to imagine all of the unique opportunities that learning a foreign language could have given me. Specifically, thanks to the invaluable resources offered by Russian Flagship, such as intensive summer language learning with RLASP and weekly tutoring, my increased language and cultural knowledge of Eurasia has assisted me in securing internships and research positions that I would not have gotten otherwise. In particular, my in-depth knowledge of Russian and Kazakh culture was of interest to the Department of State, with whom I have been able to use such knowledge to forge cross cultural relationships with Russian youth in the context of two internships. In addition, my Russian language skills have allowed me to conduct research directly in the target language about the shifting public perceptions of the significant Afro-Russian populations in Russia. My knowledge of Russian language was invaluable, as it allowed me to analyze the performative nature of Soviet anti-racism, which can often go unnoticed without previous cultural and linguistic insight. I was even given the unforgettable and unique opportunity to present my research at the generously organized Slavic Undergraduate Research Conference hosted by UCLA. Ultimately, my future plans involving Russian include participating in the Critical Language Scholarship this summer, continuing my Russian related research in order to complete my capstone thesis, and then continuing my studies of Russian language and Central Asian history abroad in Kazakhstan. In the end, I can say with full confidence that adding intensive language studies to my academic career has been a life changing and professional career enhancing decision that I’m grateful to UCLA and Russian Flagship for offering!”