Explore St. Petersburg!

Exciting new opportunities awaited students on this year’s study abroad to St. Petersburg, led by Professor John Bailyn, Professional and Doctoral Program Director for the Department of Linguistics, Director of the SUNY Russia Programs Network (RPN), and founder of Stony Brook’s St. Petersburg study abroad program.  This summer, the Explore St. Petersburg! program introduced internship opportunities for participating students to work at medical clinics, homeless shelters, and a children’s summer music camp, among others. A variety of internships are available, and students are placed based on their academic goals and professional interests.

Picture: Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg

Study abroad student Anna Kondraciuk volunteered with an organization called Nochlezhka, the only organization in St. Petersburg that helps the homeless, this past summer. “Apparently, they get so many people who want to volunteer for the organization that they have more people than they need. I consider myself lucky to have had the program set it up for me as it really was a unique opportunity,” Anna said. The organization also provides addiction counseling, legal help and shelter.

Sidra Dawood, a political science major, interned with the Hermitage Art Museum while in St. Petersburg. “My primary duties at the Hermitage included working on organizing/redoing the volunteer website,” she said. “I also observed meetings regarding events that the Hermitage was planning.”

The two summer programs offered by Stony Brook in St. Petersburg (one on linguistics and cultural studies, the other a Russian language immersion program) give students a sense of Russia and the country’s culture through excursions, films and lectures. They live and study with students from Russia and other countries throughout Europe while at the New York Institute (NYI) in St. Petersburg. “If you’re taking politics or culture with people from a very different background, that is very interesting,” said Professor Bailyn. A few Russian students from NYI have even come to Stony Brook on exchange programs.

Besides interning, Anna spent her time in St. Petersburg attending cultural classes. “I went to a class that discussed the political significance of graffiti as well as a class that discussed punk rock,” she said.

For Sidra, participating in various seminars such as “Islam, Women, and the West” and “He, She, They: Threshold Concepts in Feminism” proved to be a valuable experience. “These classes were very interesting because they were primarily discussion based and each student brought a distinct perspective to the classes,” she said.

It is no surprise that this year attracted the most students in the program’s history. “This year there were over 22 American students who went [on the cultural exchange], which is the largest number we’ve had,” said Professor Bailyn said.  An additional six students participated in the language immersion program, making an unprecedented total of 28 students.

The application deadline for Summer 2017 programs is March 1, 2017.  More information on the St. Petersburg programs can be found on the Study Abroad website.