Excerpts courtesy of CIEE Newsletter
Spring is in the air in Moscow — days are longer, tulips are blooming and Muscovites are out in force, preparing the city for the festive May holidays. Here, as everywhere, spring inclines you look to the future. Students on CIEE Business and International Relations program are busy planning a day trip to the city of Tula, learning about the Moscow’s upcoming Spring and Easter festival, getting ready for a four-day trip to St. Petersburg, and, of course, writing papers and preparing presentations for classes at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
Students on the Business and International Relations program have the option to complete an unpaid academic internship. The for-credit internship includes onsite work at a Moscow business or organization and a bi-weekly seminar.
Natali Gray Misak Hall (University of Arkansas) is interning at the local TV station “360.” This station broadcasts only in Russian and Natali works in the website department, using her Photoshop and film editing skills to work with images and design graphics for online stories.
"I volunteer after school at a learning center for kids after they have gone to middle school or high school for the day. These kids are usually very serious about their studies or really love the subject. I work with a teacher and about twenty students and assist with projects, vocabulary, and mainly accent coaching. It's a learning experience for me, because I don't always think of the mechanics of my mother tongue! But, at the end of the day, it's my favorite, because I love how fired up the students are about learning and I am thrilled to be able to help."
Natali Gray Misak Hall (University of Arkansas)
During the seminar portion of the internship, student reflect on their experiences onsite and share challenges and successes. Topics covered in the seminar include: navigating cultural differences in the workplace, cross-cultural communication, cross cultural competencies, and marketing your international experience. Students write reflective papers, complete a research paper and presentation.
Internships
As part of their internship, students take part in monthly site visits. This semester students will do site visits to an international company, a think tank, a media outlet, and a non-profit organization.
In February, students toured the Moscow headquarter of Google. Besides playing ping pong, making fresh squeezed orange juice and ogling the massage chairs, students learned about Google’s recruitment and hiring processes and discussed the skills required to be successful in an multi-cultural environment with a 12-year veteran of Google’s Moscow office.
In March, students attended a presentation at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), a non-profit academic think-tank founded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Timur Makhmutov, an MGIMO alum, expert on the arctic, and deputy program director, explained the work of the think tank and how think tanks impact foreign policy in Russia.
In April students toured the studio of the TV news station “Dozhd” and learned about the opportunities and challenges facing independent media in Russia from a producer at the station, Kogershin Sagiev. An MGIMO student and former intern at Dozhd arranged the visit.
The CIEE Business and International Relations program encourages students to engage in activities that take them outside the university in order to learn more about life in Russia. Megan Brundage (University of Alabama) and Natali Gray Misak Hall (University of Arkansas) have been volunteering with an organization that prepares middle and high school students to participate in English language competitions. The experience offers Megan and Natali the opportunity to meet new people (not university students) in a new environment (not the university).
Also this semester, several CIEE students took part in a conference on Climate Change, hosted at the American Center.
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| Cole Speidel (University of Pennsylvania), Daniel McConnell (Villanova University) and Natali Gray Misak Hall (University of Arkansas) with participants of the Climate Change Conference in the American Center, Moscow. |
To learn more about student life on the Moscow Business & International Affairs program, like them on Facebook (CIEE Study Center Moscow).
If you need help getting started with study abroad, take a look at the first steps: http://studyabroad.uark.edu/getting-started/first-steps.php.
