Students to study Russian overseas through US State Department program

Learning a second language has many benefits other than simply learning to converse with someone from another country. At Hylton High School, students learning Russian have made another discovery. Learning another language can also take you places.

Students Colin Bushweller and Emma Ross have been selected by the National Security Language Initiative for Youth program to study Russian language overseas.

The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, provides merit-based scholarships to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs. For seven weeks this summer these students will immerse themselves in the Russian language. Bushweller will travel to Estonia and Ross will travel to Moldova.

Under teacher Paul Rischard’s lead, students studying Russian have also participated in a number of competitions that encourage and test their mastery of the language.

In the International Russian Essay Contest judged in Moscow at the Pushkin Institute of Linguistics, Sydney Millar won a Silver Medal at the advanced level against students from 60 other countries. Millar also won a Gold Medal in the National Russian Essay Contest.

Gold Medals for participation in the Virginia Olympiada of Spoken Russian were won by Alondra Burton, Adriana Dominguez, Anthony Lewis, Emilee Ryals, Emma Ross, Michael Terrones, Giselle Amanullah, Rukhsar Amanullah, Hannah Folks (top in Virginia - Level II), Catherine Kemp (top in Virginia - Level III Heritage), Sydney Millar (top in Virginia - Level V non-native).