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Post Secondary Russian Scholar
Laureate Award

The ACTR Post Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award (PSRSLA) is a free program offered to U.S. Russian language departments and programs.

​Organized under the auspices of the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR), the PSRSLA seeks to provide national recognition for our outstanding junior and senior university-level students -- those students who best embody an enthusiasm for and love of things Russian. ACTR provides this program as a service to the profession. We encourage every Russian program to take advantage of this opportunity to publicly recognize their top junior or senior students.

Since 2019 this award is open to community colleges with two years of Russian. These colleges are welcome to nominate one of their students who will be continuing on to a four-year university to major in Russian.


Participate in PSRSLA and let our best and brightest know that we appreciate their work and value their commitment to all things Russian. Individual Russian departments and programs, not ACTR, decide which of their students are most deserving of this award. All laureates receive ACTR certificates and letters.    

Nomination period: January 1st – March 1. During the nomination period there is an active link "Nomination form" on the right. No late nominations accepted. Award certificates are mailed to nominators by April 1.

History note: In 2007, Ben Rifkin and Jane Shuffelton,  members of ACTR Board of Directors, suggested expanding the ACTR Russian Scholar Laureate Award, which at that time was open only to secondary-level Russian language programs, to college and university programs. That marked the beginning of the ACTR Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award (PSRSLA). Cynthia A. Ruder, a member of ACTR Board of Directors and PSRSLA Chair from 2007 to 2012 designed the format of this award and worked hard to reach out to as many Russian programs as possible, bringing the number of participants from twenty institutions in 2007 to fifty in 2012. John Schillinger, Chair of the Committee on College and Pre-College Russian (CCPCR), as well as the SEELANGS listserve, have continuously provided invaluable help in spreading information about this award to an ever-growing number of programs.
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Guidelines and Nomination Form
 Questions? Suggestions?
Contact Alla Smyslova, 
Co-chair, PSRSLA
as2157 at columbia.edu
Susan Kresin
Co-chair, PSRSLA
kresin at ad.ucla.edu
Iza Savenkova
Co-chair, PSRSLA

 is2751 at columbia.edu 
Past Programs and Laureates

Notes from Nominators

2023
“Thank you for everything you do to sustain this program!!! This is such a great program, and it means so much to the students who are selected. “      Emily Johnson, University of Oklahoma

“Thank you so much for providing the opportunity to recognize and celebrate wonderful students like Ben. It means so much to the awarded student, faculty members, our program, and the community.”     Julia Katsnelson, University of Vermont

“Thanks for doing this--it is a nice recognition for our students.” Benjamin Sutcliffe, Miami University

“Thank you very much. I am glad that there is such a great opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of our students.”      Maria Ivanova, McGill University
 
“Thanks to you all for doing so much good work for this great program and service to the profession!”                                                             Tom Garza, The University of Texas at Austin
 
“Thanks as always for this wonderful service to the profession!”    Mary Nicolas, Lehigh University
 
“We are most grateful that you organize this opportunity for the many deserving students studying Russian every year.”    Janneke van de Stadt, Wiliams College
 
“We're so delighted to have the opportunity to honor our students in this way and very much appreciate all you do to make this possible.”  Lara Ravitch, University of Oregon
 
“Thank you for providing this service!”    Holly Myers, University of Delaware
 
“I really appreciate your work. This has been an exciting opportunity for our students!”
 Snezhana Zheltoukhova, Stetson University
 
“Thank you for making this available. It is very important to us and our students.”
Erin Collopy, Texas Tech University
 
“Thank you for the opportunity!” Larysa Stepanova, Ohio State University
 
“Thank you for doing such a great job with this! it is a beautiful certificate and goes a long way to instilling a sense of accomplishment in our winners!”  Halima Belemlih, University of New Haven
 
“Thank you for offering this important recognition of student dedication to Russian studies. The award is an important component of our program's spring awards ceremony, and it's a wonderful thing to connect our students with a larger community of honorees.”    Molly Blasing, University of Kentucky
 
“Thank you again for this excellent service. We love honoring our students, and this is a great way for us to do that.”    Cori Anderson, Rutgers University
 
“Thanks for making this great opportunity available!”  Michael Gorham, University of Florida
 
“Thank you so much for organizing this award!” Laura Little, Connecticut College
 
“Thank you so much for your ongoing efforts to recognize our best students' achievements!”
Larry McLellan, University of California, Santa Barbara
 
“Thank you very much for this much appreciated service to the profession and our students!”   Karen Evans-Romaine,  University of Wisconsin - Madison


2022
“I really appreciate everything that you are doing to sustain this program.  These kinds of ACTR projects really help encourage our students and sustain interest in Russian.   I think they are particularly important now –when things are so uncertain.   I hope you are doing well personally despite the very hard circumstances.” Emily Johnson, University of Oklahoma
 
“Thank you for spearheading this important initiative and for supporting our students.”
 Irina Ivliyeva, Missouri University of Science and Technology
 
“Joining the chorus of happy instructors: this is a wonderful award to be able to offer!”
Janneke van de Stadt, Williams College
 
“What a wonderful way to honor our students' hard work!” Amy Adams, The College of the Holy Cross
 
“Thanks for offering this great award for our students.” Benjamin Sutcliffe, Miami University
 
“Thank you for continuing to sponsor this award!”  Valeria Sajez, Lafayette College
 
“Thank you for your service to the field. We genuinely appreciate it!” Mary Nicholas, Lehigh University
 
“Thank you for doing it. It is very important for the students and for the Russian program”.
Alla Kourova, the University of Central Florida
 
“We take this award very seriously in our department and do not nominate students every year, preferring to reward those students whose work and participation has been truly noteworthy. Thank you all for running this )).”   Diane Nemec Ignashev,  Carleton College
 
“Thank you so much for putting this together! We appreciate the work you put into this.”
Tom Dolack, Wheaton College
 
“Thanks for curating this important national award!”  Michael Gorham, the University of Florida
 
“Thank you for running this program. I'm grateful to have this opportunity to recognize this very deserving Russian student!”    Holly Myers, University of Delaware
 
“Thank you for the wonderful opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of our students to our Russian program.”    Hilde Hoogenboom, Arizona State University
 
“Thank you for this service! We are so grateful for a way to recognize our students, even though it is hard to choose every year! (We actually invented another award for excellence in literary studies!)”    Cori Anderson, Rutgers University
 
“And thank you for the opportunity to encourage our students to study Russian and reward the best with this honor .”   Constantine Muravnik, Yale University
 

2021
"Thanks for organizing this nice honor!"  Benjamin Sutcliffe, Miami University
 
“[o]ur laureate this year is honored and thrilled. He's excited to be receiving his certificate. Thanks again for continuing to run this program. It's such a great way to reward student success and achievement.”  Kristine Shmakov, Portland Community College
 
"Thanks so much for your message and for coordinating the ACTR Awards. It's a great way to show our appreciation for highly motivated students who put in extra effort."  College of St. Scholastica, Karen Rosenflanz
 
"We appreciate this opportunity to recognize one of our outstanding Russian students with the ACTR Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award." Robert Channon, Purdue University

"Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to honor our strong students!"  Valentina  B. Iepuri, University of Mississippi

"Thank you so much for your work on this annual endeavor. It means so much to our students and to me." 
Mary Nicholas, Lehigh University
 
"Thank you for giving me a way to reward Matthew’s diligent work!" Michael Ossorgin, Fordham University
 
"Thank you so much for this service!" Emily Van Buskirk, Rutgers University

Thank you to ACTR for your continued efforts to recognize students’ achievements."  Larry McLellan, University of California at Santa Barbara
                                                        
"Thank you for this opportunity to recognize our students!" Maria Allen, University of Pennsylvania

"Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity! It is a great way to recognize our students' hard work, strivings, and talents!"
Natalya Kuznetsova, University of Utah
 
"It means so much to our students – and so much to us to add it to our celebrations of them at the end of the academic year."                     Nicole Monnier, University of Missouri
 
"In this most unusual teaching year, we at Binghamton are especially glad of the continuing opportunity to recommend a PSRSLA nominee."
Nancy Tittler, Binghamton College
 
"Our previous two student awardees have been most appreciative and humbled by this PSRSLA Achievement Award. Thank you for your continued consideration."  Svetlana Grenier, Georgetown University


2020
"Many thanks for making this opportunity available to Russian students! It is a terrific way to recognize their achievements."
 
"I am a small-college Russian program nominator, and I want to thank you for such a great opportunity to recognize a hard-working, dedicated and very talented student!"
 
"Thank you for doing this, we love being able to award this every year! I appreciate what all of you do under normal circumstances, but at the present moment that goes double."  
 
"Thank you for continuing to organize this!"
 
"Thank you very much for giving us this nation-wide opportunity to recognize one of the best students in our Russian program each year."

"Thank you SO much for continuing to run this wonderful program. It is such a great motivator for our students and our program. You are fabulous!"
 
"Thank you for all that the ACTR is doing to support the field during the COVID shutdowns."
 
"Thank you so much!  We really appreciate the program and all you do to organize it every year.  I know how much work this is."

"Thank you for this valuable service!!"
 
"Thank you so much. I'm sure that was a huge amount of work, but this is so meaningful to the students."
 
"Thank you for doing this important work, despite the circumstances."
 
2019  
 "I am a one-person program, and it means a lot to see my students get recognized by the ACTR. As I am working towards establishing a Russian studies minor, this is the best reward they could get for studying Russian at our University. Thank you so much for recognizing the best students of Russian."    
                 
"Thank you for continuing to offer this wonderful form of recognition for our students!"
 
"Thank you for arranging this!"
 
"Thank you, as always!"
 
"Thank you so much for doing this once again!"

"Thanks so much for this wonderful program!"
 
"Thank you so much for orchestrating the Laureate Award, which is always a nice thing to give out at the end of the year."   
 
"Thank you. I appreciate so much the work of the ACTR to support our programs!"
 
"Thanks so much for this opportunity. I love being able to honor the strongest student in my program each year for their hard work and dedication to learning Russian. They are always thrilled to receive this award each year."
 
2018
 "Thank you ! for making this possibility available to students of Russian!"
 
"Thank you very much for coordinating this award! It means so much to the students and everyone in the profession!"
 
"Thank you, as always, for coordinating this program. Especially for the frequent reminders, even on the last day!"
 
"And thanks again for running the award program, it's a great program."
 
"Thanks so much for organizing this wonderful award -- we so appreciate it!"



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