Four Russian students presented their foreign internship experiences to the President’s Leadership Council.
PROVO, Utah (Oct. 5, 2018) — Each year, BYU alumni and university donors gather together from far and wide in the President’s Leadership Council for an update and discussion on how the funds they donate help BYU students gain an education. This meeting generally involves words of wisdom from the current president of BYU as well as presentations from students selected from majors that receive a portion of funding from these generous alumni.
This year, President Worthen placed special emphasis on experiential learning, emphasizing that “we learn by study, by faith, and by experience.” As BYU proudly proclaims that “the world is our campus,” many students decide to venture outside their comfort zone of Provo to learn about and experience the world.
Representing the German and Russian departments, Carly and Jackson Tait, Chris Brousseau, and Emily Hoskins discussed how their experiences abroad combined experiential learning with a humanities education.
Carly interned at the Latvian Museum of Decorative Arts and Designs, conducting educational programs and research on various Latvian artists. Meanwhile, her husband, Jackson, interned at the University of Latvia in its entrepreneurship program. Driven by his passion for videography, Jackson created a short video, documenting the internship opportunities in the Baltics and in Russia. Carly explained, “The video is meant to show the variety of different experiences that awaits students in Europe.”
One such student, Chris Brousseau, spent his internship at a translation, interpretation, and localization firm called Grand Alliance, just over Red Square in Moscow, Russia. On the day Carly and Jackson came to film him, Brousseau described, “We received a rush order for an eight minute commercial that needed to be transcribed, translated, dubbed, recorded, and adapted, all within an hour and a half.” Brousseau and his team finished the clip just in time, adding it to a list of over thirty projects Brousseau worked on with Grand Alliance over the summer. “I went from knowing next to nothing,” he said of his internship experience, “ to seeing a commercial that I’d personally translated show in theaters.” Brousseau has now been hired as a translator for Grand Alliance thanks to his internship with them. He admits, however, that “it was just as important that we learned about Russian culture, as we did the language and the business. Thanks to these [internship] opportunities, we experience, grow, and improve the world.”
While Brousseau worked on mastering the ropes of translation, Emily Hoskins began studying prostate cancer at the Latvian Biomedical and Research Center. With hopes of pursuing a career in cancer research, Hoskins said, “My internship gave me an invaluable opportunity that elevated me academically and put me on the track to achieving these aspirations that I have in cancer research. I learned what potential I have—what I can do in my career…and my Russian language was enhanced.” On this combination of research and Russian, she commented, “My supervisor was Russian, so we communicated in Russian, which to me is a very unique opportunity. My two majors are in science (bioinformatics) and the humanities (Russian). Imagine an internship that combines both.”
In gratitude to the donors at the President’s Leadership Council, Hoskins added, “This internship has meant so much to me, and I know it wouldn’t have been possible without financial help. I want to thank you personally for what you do for BYU.”
Watch Carly and Jackson’s video here.
Cristiana Farnsworth (European Studies and Russian, ’20)