Dec 15, 2010
Russian Studies Program Closing Banquet Celebrates RSP’s Impact
posted under NEWS STORY
In November, Kyle Royer, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities’ vice president for finance and administration, and Ken Bussema, CCCU vice president for student programs, traveled to Nizhni Novgorod, Russia to participate in the closing banquet for the CCCU’s BestSemester Russian Studies Program (RSP). In addition to Director Harley Wagler and Program Assistant Debbie Strutton, several long-time friends of the program were in attendance, including representatives from RSP host institution, Nizhni Novgorod State University.
Alexander Olegovich Grudzinskii, vice rector for international affairs and innovation in education, and Liudmila Ivanovna Ruchina, dean of the philogical faculty and organizer of RSP’s Russian language classes and lecturing professors, represented the university. Also present were members of the university’s International Affairs Office who assisted RSP on a daily basis, including Galina Ivanovna Muravskaia, deputy director and the face of the university for RSP from the beginning; Alexander Glebovich Lubavskii, deputy director and a much-loved translator; and Irina Venalievna Oleneva, the deputy director who has done the paperwork for RSP students since RSP’s inception. Also joining the gathering was Deputy to the Dean of the Faculty for International Students Lilia Vladimirovna Erushkina, who has worked with hundreds of RSP students, has served as a host mother eleven times and wrote her dissertation on the CCCU and its values, as seen from the Russian perspective.
Bussema’s reflection on RSP’s impact as celebrated at the closing banquet follows:
Maxim Gorky tells us that “happiness always looks small when you hold it in your hands, but let it go and you will learn at once how big and precious it is.” This advice was a fitting way to frame our celebration of the 17-year Russian-American educational partnership we called the Russian Studies Program. From its eager and rather bold inception in spring 1994 through the last class of 2010, RSP has played a significant role in the hearts and minds of nearly 600 alumni, dozens of host families and scores of Russian students.
RSP represented a new educational venture to bridge cultures and countries, political histories and ideological struggles at a time of significant transition and opportunity. For our partner, Nizhnii Novgorod State University, it marked a new era of international cooperation and recognition. For the CCCU, launching RSP expanded the CCCU’s Christ-centered culture-crossing opportunities and provided an avenue for college students to engage a newly opening part of the world.
However, for a handful of Russian language teachers, a few visionary administrators and a director, and several families willing to open their homes and hearts to North American students, RSP was even more. RSP became a deeply embedded part of their lives.
Over the years RSP has served the students well. Their testimonies of how their lives were changed and their understanding of God’s kingdom enlarged clearly evidence that RSP was the right program in the right place at the right time. The program was perhaps small in terms of numbers but, nonetheless, significant in impact for all involved.
Although obviously a great disappointment, the decision to close the program at this time of shifting patterns of student interest, economic challenges and changing goals for international education is understood by those who have poured so much into it. Yet, the end of the RSP era leaves behind a rather large absence in the minds, hearts and lives of many good friends. Celebrating an ending takes more effort than celebrating a beginning. Thus, at the closing banquet we celebrated with grace God’s faithfulness and many blessings, said thank you as meaningfully as we could, and acknowledged together how big and precious RSP has been to everyone fortunate to have been a part of this program.
The 12 semester- or summer-long BestSemester student programs offered by the CCCU are categorized as either culture-shaping programs or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville, Tenn.); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (L.A., Calif.); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Included in the culture-crossing programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; Russian Studies Program; and Uganda Studies Program. All programs undergo regular site visit evaluations by the Student Academic Programs Commission (SAPC).
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 184 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. There are now 111 member campuses in North America. All are fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 73 affiliate campuses from 24 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.
