Russian Flagship program receives renewed funding for 2022-23

The Russian Flagship Program is a collaborative initiative between the Department of Language and Literacy Education and Franklin College’s Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. The program is funded by the Language Flagship, a public/private partnership sponsored by the National Security Education Program (NSEP).

The Russian Flagship program secured $344,000 in NSEP funding for student scholarships and $374,000 in operational funds for the 2022-2023 academic year. Six Russian Flagship students were awarded prestigious Boren scholarships for the Russian Overseas Flagship Capstone Year abroad in Kazakhstan.

In summer 2022, the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Immersion in the Russian Language, Culture, and Communities in the Baltics Program shifted to a domestic location in Honolulu, Hawaii due to security concerns.

The residential immersion program offered a rigorous academic immersion experience, including 20 hours of intensive Russian coursework a week, as well as daily co-curricular activities featuring a variety of clubs, guided tours around Oahu exploring globally- and locally-relevant disciplinary topics, hikes, and leisure—all in Russian and while taking in the majestic beauty and rich local culture of Hawaii. Additionally, the program offered tutoring, virtual Russian-speaking conversational partners from Latvia, and a virtual course on the history of modern Russia offered in English with discussions in Russian.