NORTON–Wheaton College junior Stanley Ellicott, a double major in economics and Russian language and literature from Avon, Maine, won a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to fund his spring semester study in Russia.

December 6, 2005

NORTON--Wheaton College junior Stanley Ellicott, a double major in economics and Russian language and literature from Avon, Maine, won a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to fund his spring semester study in Russia. The award was announced by the U.S. Department of Education in late November.

A Balfour and Presidential Scholar and a Dean's List student, Ellicott spent the fall semester studying business economics in Denmark's International Study Program. He's traveled extensively throughout Europe to pursue educational opportunities, including to Brussels for the European Union Parliament and to London to visit the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where he envisions a career nurturing economic development in Russia after he earns an MBA.

''I visited Russia in late October,'' Ellicott said. ''It's such a stirring experience to finally immerse yourself in a culture and a language that you've studied for a couple of years and which is so distinct and engaging. The short trip confirmed by language abilities and invigorated my interest in Russian.'

At Wheaton, Ellicott is a member of the Programming Council and the Russian Club. He works in the Filene Center for Work and Learning, and has studied with Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian Marina Aptekman as a Wheaton Research Partner and an editor/researcher for her forthcoming book (in Russian), Jewish Kabbalah, Mythopoetical Androgen and Adam Kadmon in the Texts of Nikolai Gumilev and Mikhail Kuzmin.

Ellicott's Fulbright-Hays application included an essay in Russian. In it he composed a letter to his future Russian host family explaining the ''idiosyncrasies of Danish culture.''

''My Russian instructor, who has lived in Denmark for some years now, laughed quite a bit after reading about Danish cultural practices from an American's perspective,'' Ellicott said of his essay. ''The Danes don't have a direct expression for 'excuse me' and, if you happen to be blocking the exit of the metro, you'll be plowed out of the way and only hear 'undskyld' afterward. You learn rather quickly not to block the exit.''

As part of the Fulbright program, the Fulbright-Hays Foreign Area and Language Training Program is administered by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of International Education and Graduate Programs. Funds are awarded to Americans individually or to U.S. institutions to support research and training efforts abroad focusing on non-western foreign languages and world area studies.