Junior wins Fulbright-Hays award for study abroad
Wheaton College junior Michael Freese, a Russian Studies major from Newport, Maine, has won a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to fund a semester of study in St. Petersburg, Russia, during spring 2007.
Wheaton College junior Michael Freese, a Russian Studies major from Newport, Maine, has won a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to fund a semester of study in St. Petersburg, Russia, during spring 2007.
A Presidential Scholar and Dean's List student, Freese will study Russian language, history and literature at Gertsen University, one of Russia's leading institutions of higher education. Having been abroad only once, on a trip to Europe, Freese is looking forward to immersing himself in Russian society.
''I hope it will further my knowledge of the language and culture,'' he said. ''I'm going to live with a Russian family, and that will throw me into the midst of it.''
Freese came to his Wheaton major by serendipity. Exploring his options for the required two semesters of language study, he sent an e-mail to Associate Professor of Russian Francoise Rosset, noting that he was interested in Russian but had never studied a spoken language before. Rosset replied with a 15-minute voice mail message, encouraging him to go for it.
''I thought I'd try it,'' said Freese, who now has four semesters of Russian language study to his credit as well as courses in Russian history, literature and folklore. During the summer of 2006, he served as an intern at the Russian American Cultural Center of Boston, where he assisted Russian-speaking immigrants with the daily challenges of living in an adopted homeland.
Freese is vice president of the Wheaton Russian Club and plays on the club ice hockey team. He has a strong interest in international relations and is considering a career in politics or business upon graduation in 2008.
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.
