What have you been up to since leaving UF?
After graduating with a Russian language and literature degree, and double minors in Spanish and English, I worked for over two years in humanitarian aid. Beginning on the heels of Kabul’s collapse in 2021, I worked in the heightened-risk department of Intensive Case Management (ICM) at a refugee resettlement agency in suburban Washington, D.C. My ICM clients navigated additional layers of complexity in addition to those inherent to resettlement, such as physical and mental illnesses and disabilities, past and present experiences with gender-based violence, statuses as unaccompanied minors, and identification with the LGBTQ+ community. At the end of 2021, I began my tenure at the International Rescue Committee as the office’s first gender equity intern. With gratitude toward my remarkable team members, I would end in 2024 as my department’s extended services supervisor.
As I completed my undergraduate degree during the height of COVID-19, I was unable to study abroad for either Russian or Spanish language and cultural immersion; with this said, I was especially grateful to undertake my 2024-2025 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant in Madrid, Spain to teach English language and literature to Spanish high school students. As a general rule of thumb, my professional, academic, and personal attention have seemed to orbit the trifold language studies of Russian, Spanish, and English since my undergraduate years. With this said, it is both fitting and thrilling to follow my recent Spanish focus with a master’s degree in modern languages at the University of Oxford, where I will specialize in Russian and English comparatively in October 2025.
What one or two of the more rewarding things about your current position, or that you’ve done since graduating from UF?
In my current role, I have found teaching 1984 by George Orwell to a group of 10th-grade students — speaking about dystopia, language versus thought, etc. — to be especially fascinating. Outside of classes, getting to know students on a personal level in informal hallway conversations and while resting during “recreo” (break), discussing soccer game results and favorite bands, has been the indisputable highlight of each week. On an unrelated note, another high point of my time in Madrid has certainly been eating my weight in tortilla (Spanish omelette) since I arrived in September.
How, if at all, do the skills and knowledge you acquired from the Russian studies major contribute to your current work or career plans?
My intimate familiarity with the peaks and valleys of second-language acquisition has made me a much more effective educator in Madrid. As the students are aware of my Spanish and Russian studies, they also know I viscerally understand the intimidation of being “seen trying” in linguistic spaces. When I first arrived in September 2024, I opened my first classes with recounting some of my most (at the time) embarrassing linguistic moments in the hopes of putting the students at ease. In one University of Florida class, for example, well into my higher-level Russian courses, I still remember mishearing my professor’s soft-ball question, “What is the name of this film,” and responding confidently in front of my classmates with a wildly out-of-context response. Leaning into levity and learning to laugh at your mishaps is a crucial skill of mental resilience, which I have attempted to impress upon my English students.
What other impacts, practical or otherwise, have come from your decision to study Russia/Russian?
My admiration for Russian language and literature clearly has not left me, as I find myself returning to school for a master’s degree on the subject. Undergraduate studies in close collaboration with the Russian Studies faculty at the University of Florida left an indelible mark on the academic and professional “compass” I have used to orient my next steps. In my honors thesis progress meetings with Dr. Galina Rylkova, for instance, I recall how she discussed Russian writers with the thoroughness of a researcher and the humanized familiarity of a (metaphorical, of course) contemporary. I am in the earlier stages of developing my own dynamic of familiarity with these writers, which I hope to expound upon in research at Oxford. Among other possibilities, I am considering carrying this literary and linguistic knowledge into pursuit of a career in international publishing, in which I would aspire to work with contemporary writers from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
What words of advice do you have for students just now taking up Russian studies?
It is more than acceptable if your first Russian classes make you feel a bit like a “fish out of water.” Do not let the Cyrillic alphabet, nor the general mystique of complexity that surrounds Russian, intimidate you before you start. There is an initial learning curve with finding your feet and getting comfortable with the unfamiliar pronunciation, grammar, and writing, but this comes with the territory. Therefore, if you are making mistakes, you are trying, and therefore improving. The language will become more accessible than you think. Give it time and be gentle with yourself as a learner. As I tell my students in Spain, do not be afraid to be seen trying in class, either — every second-language learner with any degree of fluidity sits proudly on a mountain of mistakes necessary to arrive to precision. As an additional note, you have a world-class faculty at the University of Florida. Do not hesitate to ask for help and learn all you can while you are enrolled.