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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. 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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PSRSLA Nomination Guidelines
Questions? Suggestions? Complaints?
Contact Alla Smyslova,
 PSRSLA Chair

as2157@columbia.edu 
Past Programs and Laureates

Notes from Nominators

 “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 so much for orchestrating the Laureate Award, which is always a nice thing to give out at the end of the  year.”    

“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.” 


“Thank you in advance for all of your hard work on behalf of Russian students across the country! I know that our students really love to receive this award and it is a great way to promote the study of Russian language and culture.”  

“Thank you for your sponsorship of the ACTR award. Each year at our graduation celebration, when we present the award, everyone is very pleased at this recognition of an outstanding student. This year we will be even more pleased.”

“We're so glad to have this chance for our finest students to gain recognition from our field.”

“Our students absolutely love receiving the award, and giving it out has become a regular part of our end-of-semester reception for our graduating seniors.”

“… thanks so much for this wonderful opportunity, ... Julia will be thrilled to receive the award, and it will be certainly helpful to her when she applies to graduate programs.”

“Thank you for doing this work to celebrate our students!  We all appreciate it.”

“This is a wonderful program, and we are lucky to have another superb candidate this year.”

“Thanks again for coordinating this great program. It's so nice to be able to reward fabulous students each year!”

“It is really quite a valuable way of recognizing our best, and I am thrilled to give my student such an award.”


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