10/29/10, 6:19 pm

Who's interested in studying Russian in Russia for free? Because the Critical Language Scholarship is now accepting applications for 2011.

CLS is a program run through the U.S. Department of State for American students to study 'critical languages' [Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu] in their respective countries for 7-10 weeks during the summer. Applicants get to live with a host family and take classes at a university to increase fluency. It's kind of like the MSU Volgograd program in that respect.

Pre-reqs for the 'Intermediate' Russian CLS is two years of Russian in college, and the 'Advanced' Russian CLS is three years. So, virtually everyone in 300 or 400-level classes this year is eligible.

You can check out the program info here, and the application can be filled out here. You better hurry though: the deadline is Monday, November 15th at 11:59 pm.



Any grads looking for a job? If you have some experience with non-profit organizations, Pacific Environment out of San Francisco is looking for a Russia Program Director. Responsibilities include:

• Overseeing and participating in development/implementation of environmental campaigns in Russia
• Fundraising for Pacific Environment's Russia Program
• Publicizing Russian environmental issues and campaigns throughout the U.S.
• Overseeing a team of four Russia Program staff
• Overseeing effective implementation of a $500,000/yr re-granting program
• Researching, monitoring, and analyzing environmental issues in Russia

Applicants should be fluent in Russian and English; experience with staff supervision, fundraising, campaign management, and budget management; able to travel extensively nationally and internationally; authorized to work in the U.S., and committed to environmental protection and social justice.

Those of you who are interested can submit a cover letter, résumé, writing sample, and contact info for three references by email to: Leah Zimmerman, Interim Executive Director, hr@pacificenvironment.org.