Class of 2020, Russian major, Dobro Slovo member. UIUC’s Russian major prepared me for what was to come in my studies and in my professional career in innumerable ways. Having only taken the first two years of Russian at UIUC, I studied abroad in Vladimir, Russia and was successfully able to experience daily life with the language and to use the thorough cultural and linguistic knowledge I’d been...

Class of 2011, Russian major, Dobro Slovo Member; currently a Tajikistan Desk Officer, U.S. Department of State. "For me, the language component of the Russian major was key. Studying Russian at Illinois and abroad gave me the opportunity to learn not only the grammar and syntax, but also the politics and culture of Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It’s a unique and...

Class of 2011, double major in Russian and Rhetoric; currently a reporter for Stars and Stripes. "I started out at Illinois as a Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies major, thinking I'd combine it with my interest in economics or history, but I quickly found that I enjoyed the language and literature classes much more. I switched majors and began to focus on Russian...