Russian Language & Area Studies at St. Olaf

Tag: Russian-Language Community

  • Foraging Workshop in the St. Olaf Natural Lands

    On Friday, May 8, Tim Clemens from Ironwood Foraging visited St. Olaf to lead a foraging workshop in the natural lands.

    Foraging is an important tradition in much of the Russian-speaking world, and represents an engaging cultural touchstone linking the Russian-speaking world and Minnesota’s own indigenous past. During the foraging workshop, Tim shared the Ojibwe names and explained the various uses of many edible plants native to Minnesota. Prof. Morse and Russian Language Community President, Yasmina Tsedenova (’27) tried their best to come up with the Russian names for related species found in Southern Russia and Central Asia.

    Foraging can be extremely dangerous if undertaken without expert supervision. Never forage on your own!

  • The Inaugural Minnesota Collegiate Olympiada of Russian Language

    Around 40 students and faculty from Russian-language programs across Minnesota gathered at St. Olaf for the inaugural Minnesota Collegiate Olympiada of Spoken Russian.

    On Saturday, April 11, St. Olaf hosted the first-ever college-level “Olympiada” or Olympics of Spoken Russian in Minnesota. We invited around 40 students and faculty from the Russian language programs at the University of Minnesota, Macalester, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Carleton).

    Students competed at the first-, second-, and third-year language levels in three different events: the oral interview, poetry recital, and “bilety” or cards, which required them to draw two random topics cards and choose one to speak about.

    Traditional Russian and Central Asian food for the event was provided by .

    Next year’s Olympiada is provisionally scheduled for mid-April and will be hosted by Macalester.

    The Medalists. Front Row (From Left): Taha Alnasser (UMN), First-Year Silver; Liv Whitmore (Macalester), Third-Year+ Gold; Silas Buryak (UMN), Second-Year Silver; Elle Davis (St. Olaf), Third-Year+ Silver. Back Row (From Left): Gaia Miller-Guitton (St. Olaf), First-Year Bronze; Parker Chelikowsky (St. Olaf), First-Year Gold; Franklin Brezee (Gustavus), Second-year Bronze; Paul Murphy (St. Olaf), Second-Year Gold; Charlie Rhodes (Carleton), Third-Year+ Bronze.