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A San Ramon native was one of 600 students across the country to be awarded a U.S. State Department scholarship to study a select foreign language overseas this summer.
Anjali Mishra — who graduated from Dougherty Valley this past spring — studied Russian in a six-week immersive program on an NSLI-Y scholarship.
The NSLI-Y (short for National Security Language Initiative for Youth) is part of a 2006 government initiative, launched with the purpose of strengthening communication between the U.S. and other countries. The initiative awards scholarships for students to study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian or Russian overseas.
“This was a life changing summer and I’m so grateful for the opportunity,” Mishra said.
During her junior year of high school, she remembers, her AP U.S. History teacher encouraged students to consider studying and traveling abroad through a variety of programs, giving Mishra the travel bug. But she didn’t think her parents would pay for a program like that, so she started looking around for other options, stumbling upon the state department’s scholarship in her online wanderings.
She was heavily involved in speech and debate at Dougherty Valley, and one month their topic was the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia. The research she embarked upon, coupled with Russia’s central appearance in 2016 current events, sparked her interest in the country.
“I just wanted to see what Russia is really like,” Mishra said. In the throes of college app season, she applied in October and was awarded the scholarship.
After a few days of pre-departure orientation in New York, she arrived in Moscow on June 25.
“When I got there I was terrified,” she said. “It was really gloomy.”
But once the program began, her trepidation soon faded. “I was so happy to have been proven wrong,” she added.
During the weekdays, the 14 students in her group stayed in dorms, participating in language courses. They were in the beginner level — Russian NSLI-Y students might also go to Latvia, Estonia and Moldova.
The Russian-American Foundation, the program’s partner organization, set up a variety of pre-professional meetings, Mishra said, including a meetings at the Moscow offices for Disney, Bloomberg and other corporations.
They also participated in fun activities too, she said, like a gingerbread-making class. And twice a week they met with a group of teenage volunteers from the Pushkin Museum, a highlight for Mishra.
“Not only were we able to practice our Russian, we learned what an ordinary 17-yr-old’s life is like,” she said.
Over the weekend, she would stay with a host family, who took her to some of the nearby tourist attractions, like the Kremlin Palace and St. Basil’s Cathedral. The program concluded in August.
Now Mishra has begun her studies at UC San Diego. The trip, she said, ignited her excitement for school and learning again, something she felt she’d lost in the high school focus on grades. And she has the travel bug.
“I am so impacted by this experience, and I really hope more East Bay citizens are able to access this experience,” she said.
She hopes to minor in Eurasian studies, and continue working with Russia in the future somehow.
NSLI-Y applications for 2018-19 are now open. Previous language experience is not required.
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Mishra’s host mother (second from left) took Mishra and fellow NSLI-Y member Madison Romo (second from right) to a Russian folk concert. (Photo courtesy of Anjali Mishra) -
The 14 NSLI-Y Moscow group members present their certificates after completing the six-week intensive Russian language course. (Photo courtesy of Anjali Mishra) -
NSLI-Y students taking a gingerbread-making class. (Photo courtesy of Anjali Mishra) -
The Russian students visit the Moscow Kremlin, Anjali Mishra standing third from left. (Photo courtesy of Anjali Mishra)
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