Pushkin Summer Institute

What a great start to a new month! июль ☀️

Students have learned so much about Russian culture from their workshops and after school activities. The highlight was celebrating «Масленица» also known as the end of the winter celebration. There, student groups worked carefully to prepare their own «блины»(Blini) Russian thin pancakes, and they were delightful. 😋🥞

Tuesday’s Lecture and writing workshops were a success, continuing to challenge students to work diligently on their writing to support and improve their reading comprehension skills simultaneously. Every prompt is chosen thoughtfully to allow students to process their writing, so they can understand underlying messages and make insightful connections in Pushkin stories. 📝

On Wednesday, students had an official campus tour, which allowed students to ask specific questions about career services, financial aid, academics, and student life. This experience is intended to help them with their college decision later on.

Thursday was eventful! Students had the opportunity to meet with Dmitry Dikavitski, a Russian speaker from Belarus. As a professional in his field, Dmitry encouraged students to continue learning Russian to help them access careers in technology and different local industries. As we finished the day, students took over the pool inside Bakke Recreation Center and through games and work- swam the evening away. 🏊‍♂️

We are so proud of our cohort’s dedication to end every day on a good note. Their writing, class effort, leadership, and humor continues to impress us all. Can’t wait to see what the rest of this week holds for us. 👋

The third week of the PSI was very eventful! Students learned how to talk about their house and made wonderful presentations about their dream houses 🏡 Together with our counselors and Anya Nesterchouk, the onsite director of the program, they also celebrated the Independence day🇺🇸by going downtown and having some fun activities and watching fireworks in the country club 🎆

On Wednesday, students had a workshop about financial aid at UW-Madison 💰 On Thursday, they had
a conversation with Jacob Aehl, Russian Flagship Program Coordinator, where they learned about various opportunities to learn Russian at UW 🇷🇺 Later they also had a campus tour 👩🏻‍🎓 Friday's highlight was Campbell's cultural hour about Russian superstitions and our weekly "Student of the week" nominations. Students did an amazing job on their oral exam, essays, and Russian classes, and a lot of them received their awards this week 🏆🥇

On the weekend, students all had fun paddleboarding and Russian New Year's celebration. In addition, they went to the gym and later paid a visit to Professor Bethea and listened to his lecture about Pushkin. Afterwards, everyone had a delicious pizza 🍕 and played mafia and various sports games: baseball, cornball, badminton, etc. Everybody was happy to see the professor and meet his adorable dog called Bear 🐻

We're excited about the next week at PSI! 😍

The second week of the program was terrific! 🔥

In their Russian classes, students learned how to describe their daily routine and prepared amazing video presentations 🎥😍 They were also introduced to Russian cultural activities such as card games🃏

On Wednesday, students had an inspiring conversation with our alumnus, Juan Gomez, who shared his experience of learning Russian and told them how he it helped him succeed in his career 🕴️

On the weekend, everyone went to Madison Farmer’s market to buy some souvenirs for family and friends. We also did a lot of sports: played soccer, basketball, badminton, went to the gym, swimming pool, ice rink, and rock climbing 🧗‍♀️ On Saturday night, we had a fun party with Just Dance and karaoke 🎉

Sunday’s highlight was the celebration of a Russian holiday called Maslenitsa with various contests and games. In addition, we had a lecture by Professor Bethea and a Russian movie night 🍿

We also nominated several students of the week 🏆 You can see one of them, Asish, in the first picture.

Finally, one of our students, Janelle, celebrated her Birthday on Wednesday. We sang Russian Birthday songs, danced, shared our B-day cards with her, and suprised her with cupcakes and candles 🎂 С днём рождения, Жаннель! 🥳