Russian Alumni

I am a professionally trained classical dancer, which was the catalyst for my interest in Russian language and culture early on in life. I graduated from the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington DC, where I studied Russian for three years as my high school curriculum. Before coming to the University of Utah, I spent a semester at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, and I continued to perform, with Utah Ballet, while a student.

My prior language experience had given me a solid foundation in conversational Russian, but I quickly discovered that my vocabulary was inadequate for the task of reading 19^th and 20^th century Russian literature. Thankfully, the Russian Department allowed students to read the required literature in translation. So, I would typically start the assigned reading in Russian (at a snail’s pace); but, faced with quickly approaching deadlines, was often forced to switch over to English translations to complete the reading assignments on time. But eventually I eased in to reading Russian novels cover-to-cover. This was one of the most valuable skills I developed at the U. 

After graduating I moved to Los Angeles where I worked as a guest dancer at several ballet companies throughout Southern California. Shifting away from performing, I have completed extension courses at UCLA in film production management and have transitioned to a full-time role in film production. I currently serve as the Director of Operations at Hyperion Media Group, a company engaged in investment and development for feature films and television.

I maintain my Russian skills through reading and by maintaining a circle of friends in the Russian-speaking community of LA. I served as host of the Russian Arts and Culture Festival in West Hollywood for several years in a row and I work actively as a freelance Russian-to-English translator, with a focus on screenplays and novels. As a hobby, I have taught myself several other foreign languages, such as Spanish, French, Old Church Slavonic and, most recently, Ancient & Modern Greek.

In 2013 I played a supporting role in a Russian feature film with an untranslatable title - ‘С 8 марта мужчины!’. Before commencing principal photography in Minsk, Belarus, I gave an interview to the Belorussian press who were rather preoccupied by the casting of an American actor: https://youtu.be/l7JpLpZ2KBo The entire film can be viewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aVPyzpXqofE.

I am currently working at Microsoft as an Azure Cloud Engineer and have been working in the tech sector at Apple and Calix (Telecommunications) since graduating in 2013. While I don't use Russian or Serbian directly in my day to day work, the perspective and experiences I gained from learning Russian and Serbian have allowed me to be a key engineer when working with international customers. I am able to adapt quickly to working with those from our European timezones and can usually find common ground with them as we are discussing the issue we are working on. I enjoy studying foreign films, a love that I acquired while studying Russian and taking an Eastern European Cinema course from Professor Rimma Garn. I still talk to people about the books I read under Professor Eric Larsen in his Russian Literature courses, Master and Margarita being my favorite. I also had the opportunity to work on Electropalatography with Professor Jane Hacking which was fascinating as it allowed me to dig into the oral mechanics of Russian palatalization. I look back on my time with the Russian department fondly and feel that it plays a large part in who I am today and how I interact with the rest of the world.

In my current position, I primarily help create training materials for our client, HP Enterprise, so their sales force will continue to close deals with corporate customers, such as the Utah Jazz. Immediately upon graduating, I moved to Vladimir, near Moscow, to teach English (and become fluent in Russian) at the American Home. It was by turns rewarding, difficult, humorous, and led to the best thing that ever happened to me: meeting my fiancee. We recently met up in Europe over the winter holidays. While we were in Florence, I proposed and she said yes! We are now working on getting her visa to the US and plan to get married later this year. She and I speak every day, sometimes in English, but usually in Russian. I am grateful for the quality conversational Russian training I received at the U, which enabled me to build relationships with my friends and former students in Vladimir, my soon-to-be-in-laws, and especially my fiancee, Katya. 

I had such an amazing experience with Russian Studies at the University of Utah. Besides the high-quality language instruction, I was also impressed with the emphasis on Russian culture and literature. The Russian program opened opportunities for me to study abroad (twice!) in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and to volunteer for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Visiting those amazing cities sparked my interest in everything Russian-and the scholarships and opportunities available for Russian language students helped me with my business degree (with scholarships) and in my career (as a marketable skill). I feel an instant kinship with Russians, Eastern Europeans, and everyone bitten with the Russian bug. I love to speak a little with Russian speakers wherever I find them in the world, and they are everywhere! Some of my fellow students became life-long friends, and my professors supported me so much even after school. I could go on and on about that country-the food, the beautiful cities, the incredible museums, literature, history, and more! She is a sister country more relevant than ever.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean sollicitudin nibh mauris, ut eleifend nisl faucibus sed. Vivamus ultrices varius augue. Phasellus eu suscipit tellus. Ut et nisi et dui molestie efficitur vel eu dui. Nunc vel scelerisque tellus. Vivamus feugiat vestibulum odio posuere elementum. Nulla nec felis ac odio laoreet porttitor vel quis lacus. Nullam imperdiet faucibus urna, sit amet rhoncus enim congue vel. Nam in ante malesuada, iaculis diam eu, ultrices ante. Phasellus dignissim ipsum in leo sodales, sit amet fermentum ligula lacinia. Integer non sagittis sapien. Nulla aliquet luctus lorem, nec porta sapien. Nullam faucibus tristique augue non mattis. Proin lacinia sem sed velit hendrerit, in volutpat tortor tempus. Nunc vel finibus nulla.

Nullam maximus vel sapien id consectetur. Proin at ligula nec diam posuere dictum vel vitae lectus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam in mi eu odio commodo eleifend quis eget lorem. Mauris tempor aliquam pharetra. Vivamus rutrum, magna fermentum scelerisque molestie, lectus magna ullamcorper elit, et egestas urna magna vitae enim. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Etiam risus magna, dapibus et malesuada et, facilisis sit amet est. Morbi lobortis sem sit amet odio aliquet pulvinar. Donec mattis vestibulum nunc, ut elementum nisi facilisis nec. Phasellus leo leo, sodales eget tellus non, molestie pharetra nunc. Praesent euismod, mauris sed varius tristique, libero sem iaculis erat, nec tempor elit tortor vitae magna. Praesent porta turpis et odio hendrerit tincidunt.

Aliquam ultricies maximus elit eu venenatis. Phasellus elementum libero lectus, id cursus magna laoreet vitae. Nulla quis lectus a libero volutpat venenatis eget at urna. Donec a diam a dolor viverra pulvinar eu semper dui. Aliquam nisi enim, volutpat nec risus nec, suscipit laoreet odio. Nullam vehicula, nibh cursus finibus tempus, lorem mi rutrum ligula, in posuere dui nunc non lorem. Nulla rutrum posuere ex eleifend efficitur.

Nulla facilisi. Fusce a dignissim erat. Nulla vitae diam id ex interdum ornare. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nam et erat facilisis, tincidunt eros ac, volutpat dui. Integer quis dolor pellentesque, accumsan tortor id, tempus massa. Mauris vitae gravida est, eget blandit magna. Phasellus quis eleifend lectus, id ullamcorper leo. Nam euismod quis ante sit amet egestas.