January 24, 2013

Recent alumnae share Fulbright experience

Since moving to Siberia as a Fulbright scholar, Hilary Cline BA ’12 has experienced minus-52 degrees Fahrenheit, a cold so extreme “that your eyelashes freeze.” She has also experienced the warmest of welcomes from her new community in Khanty-Mansiysk, where she teaches English conversation and intercultural communication classes at Yugra State University, one of Russia’s newest colleges.

Since moving to Siberia as a Fulbright scholar, Hilary Cline BA ’12 has experienced minus-52 degrees Fahrenheit, a cold so extreme “that your eyelashes freeze.”

She has also experienced the warmest of welcomes from her new community in Khanty-Mansiysk, where she teaches English conversation and intercultural communication classes at Yugra State University, one of Russia’s newest colleges. Nearly all her students have invited her to their homes or for site-seeing excursions. “They’re the most hospitable people in the world,” Cline said.

According to an article in the Sonoma, California, Press Democrat, Cline’s interest in Russian came almost by accident—she planned to study Spanish but didn’t like the early-morning time slot. Instead, Cline registered for a later Russian class and was hooked, impressed with both the language and associate professor Tatiana Osipovich.

Cline’s interest in Russian extended beyond the classroom, as she joined Lewis & Clark’s Russian Club and volunteered as a one-on-one tutor teaching English to Russian immigrants. Cline also traveled to Russia twice with Overseas and Off-Campus Programs, first for a summer working with foster children at a small village outside Moscow and then for a semester abroad in St. Petersburg.

When her teaching year ends, Cline will return to her home in California to consider graduate school, translating Russian or linguistics, or a career as a foreign officer with the State Department.

Cilne is not Lewis & Clark’s only Fulbright scholar living in Russia; Ella Antell ’12 has been teaching English in Kaliningrad and blogging her overseas experience.

Lewis & Clark is one of the top producers of Fulbright award winners in the country, with the third-highest acceptance rate among liberal arts colleges. Learn more about our commitment to the Fulbright Program.