Pushkin Summer Institute

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Madison, WI
Pushkin Summer Institute

Students pledge to use Russian as much as possible during the program. Department of State Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The UW-Madison Pushkin Summer Institute is an intensive pre-college program that introduces outstanding high school students to Russian language and culture through the life and works of Russian national poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Students in the Pushkin Summer Institute take courses in Russian language, literature and culture, participate in a rich program of extra-curricular activities a

nd live in a dormitory with Russian-speaking residential counselors. Participants attend classes daily, participate in weekly seminars, complete homework assignments, and actively participate in extra-curricular activities and field trips. Former students of PSI in Madison also have the opportunity to participate in the new PSI Abroad program, a six-week intensive Russian summer program in Daugavpils, Latvia. The PSI-Abroad program, launched in 2015, is supported by the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), which is funded by the U.S. Participants will attend classes for 4 days each week and will embark on cultural and historical excursions each weekend. In addition, students will live with host families for the duration of the 6-week program, which will facilitate immersion in the language and culture. Thanks to its large Russian-speaking population, Russian is the language of everyday life in Daugavpils, which will also encourage students to interact with all aspects of the world around them in Russian. In summer 2021, both the Madison-based PSI and the PSI Abroad are conducted virtually, due to COVID-19 restrictions. We look forward to re-launching in-person programs in Madison and Daugavpils in 2022!

08/01/2024

We congratulate the 2024 PSI cohort🥳🥳

They are finally back home and preparing for another school year. In the meantime, we hope these memories help our new Alumni reminisce about their time in UW-Madison.

The students’ Russian improvement throughout the summer has led them to continue giving an earful of language exchange around their friends and relatives. And we love hearing those stories.👏👏

PSI extends the celebration to the birthdays we didn’t get to celebrate and our congratulations to the many milestones ahead in this Russian language journey. 🎊

Graduates, our last week happened so quickly- have any of the snacks purchased in the Russian store survived to see this week? 😂

From the water park to the Bakke pool, we hope the summer allows for more trill- pool days and paddle boarding included- for us all. 🎢☀️

Don’t forget to reach out. Specially, with questions regarding UW applications or other PSI news.

#Покапока #Ура #пушкин

07/18/2024

Join the amusement!🎢 As we take our last ride here in Madison. Week 4 was fun and rewarding.

Our students have grown tremendously in class, and their perseverance to make the best out of any gloomy day has been remarkable. Weather advisories and broken elevators are no match for our cohort. Their creativeness and ability to adapt and entertain their peers continues to bless our community.

We concluded the week by visiting Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells, the water park and rides overwhelmed the emotions that carried through the weekend. For some, saying goodbye to their Russian peer tutors was emotionally moving. However, PSI students appreciated getting to know their tutors throughout the summer and enjoyed sharing a bit of their life experiences in high school, Madison, or abroad. We are thankful for these connections, and we hope for them to continue their Russian learning with their, now, Russian friends. 🪆

During the week, students had a couple of cultural and academic workshops, for example: a college admissions presentation, a studying abroad/Flagship presentation, and an evening of Russian folk songs with our program director, Anya. We arranged these opportunities for students to have a better understanding college applications and the possibilities awarded for their language achievements.

Students submitted their last writing assignment based on their last Pushkin lecture. We are thankful for the teachings of Professor Bethea, and we encourage the students to continue reading and analyzing the limitless works of Alexander Pushkin after the program.

Week five is almost over and the students are excited to go back home and share their wisdom with their families and friends. Can’t wait to see some of you all for graduation. 🥳

07/10/2024

Ешё раз привет, друзья! 👋

PSI “Independence Day” week was eventful 🎆Even when the fireworks show was cancelled last minute due to rain, the students made the best out of their evening and finished the day with their own celebration.

We also went Bowling 🎳 so effortlessly they demonstrated their skills and with good sportsmanship cheered their competitors on to the last minute. We find it important to highlight the amount of different activities offered in our Student Union because we had so much fun. 🧗‍♀️🎱🎯🍦

Throughout the week, the students had a couple of cultural workshops. Anna and Emil taught us about Russian Rap influence and the array of ethnic diversity in Russia. Another guest speaker, Olga, introduced the importance of fairy tales in Russian literature and the role of creative expression in contemporary culture to sustain historical practices and the use of classical illustration in education.🪆

This week there was no pool-time for students, but instead we went paddle boarding in the Mendota Lake. 🏄 The evening benefited our activity, for the sunny day and calm waters made a day in the lake, perfect. ☀️.

We concluded our week with the Pushkin pre-Lecture hosted at the house of our lecturer, Professor Bethea who along with Bear 🐾 welcomed our whole group with sport games and snacks to make the most out of the experience and our dinner пицца 🍕 We are so grateful to have a Pushkin Scholar to facilitate Pushkin’s literature and thankful towards his family for their generous hospitality.

07/02/2024

What a great start to a new month! июль ☀️

Students have learned so much about Russian culture from their workshops and after school activities. The highlight was celebrating «Масленица» also known as the end of the winter celebration. There, student groups worked carefully to prepare their own «блины»(Blini) Russian thin pancakes, and they were delightful. 😋🥞

Tuesday’s Lecture and writing workshops were a success, continuing to challenge students to work diligently on their writing to support and improve their reading comprehension skills simultaneously. Every prompt is chosen thoughtfully to allow students to process their writing, so they can understand underlying messages and make insightful connections in Pushkin stories. 📝

On Wednesday, students had an official campus tour, which allowed students to ask specific questions about career services, financial aid, academics, and student life. This experience is intended to help them with their college decision later on.

Thursday was eventful! Students had the opportunity to meet with Dmitry Dikavitski, a Russian speaker from Belarus. As a professional in his field, Dmitry encouraged students to continue learning Russian to help them access careers in technology and different local industries. As we finished the day, students took over the pool inside Bakke Recreation Center and through games and work- swam the evening away. 🏊‍♂️

We are so proud of our cohort’s dedication to end every day on a good note. Their writing, class effort, leadership, and humor continues to impress us all. Can’t wait to see what the rest of this week holds for us. 👋

06/26/2024

Happy Tuesday PSI friends!

A little late but honored to kick off our first introduction by showing a brief overview of our first week.

Everyday was full of course materials and activities, so we are very thankful for our students patience, engagement, and enthusiasm through it all. Students began their journey by visiting Picnic Point, a popular place in the UW campus. There, they made s’mores, hiked, and appreciated the afternoon away. ☀️The day was long and sunny so concluding with a water balloon battle- felt perfect.

On Tuesday, students had their longest school day. We are proud to have an amazing mentor and Pushkin scholar like Professor Bethea who guided our group through their first lecture. The students also had their first writing workshop with Diego and Natalia, who guided them through the process of writing an essay and will continue to do so along with personalised writing tutorship throughout the program. We are so proud of our group for their dedication and hard work to complete their assignments from the get-go. ✍️

Wednesday and Thursdays were days we facilitated study hall, and our students took advantage of the time to complete their essays and class presentations to enjoy the free time afterwards. We are so glad for their interests in outdoor activities like volleyball and tennis 🎾 and as counselors we enjoyed playing them as well.

The highlight of the weekend was the Capitol tour and exploring more of downtown State St. Students have shown a great effort to lead and respect the schedule and transitions, so they are now able to move in groups and explore our campus freely.

We are excited for the many more memories to come!

#покапока ✌️

06/12/2024

Hey everyone! We are thrilled to introduce the amazing staff who will be guiding and supporting our students throughout this summer 🎉 With their passion and dedication, they’re ready to create an amazing summer filled with fun activities and unforgettable memories

07/22/2023

This was our final week at PSI. We’re really sad to say goodbye to our amazing kids 😢

These 5 weeks flew by, but at the same time we’ve done so much! On Monday, we had a culinary workshop where we baked Russian pancakes (blini) 🥞 and a concert by “Karavai”, a Wisconsin folk music band 🎵 🪗 Everyone enjoyed learning more about the Russian culture!

During their Russian lessons, the students practiced the topic “Clothes” and had a fashion show on Friday where they demonstrated their extravagant costumes 👗

Apart from the Russian classes, the students had a Pushkin lecture by Professor Bethea, a global leadership class with Valeria, and writing consultations with Masha and Bryan. In addition, they exchanged their experience with the PSI participants in Latvia 🇱🇻

At the end of the week, each student got tested on their language skills during their final exam 🙇‍♀️📚 Everyone showed a great progress in Russian in these 5 weeks!

Besides school, we also had numerous extracurricular activities. We played kickball with the BEL (Business Emerging leaders) program ⚽️ and enjoyed the ice cream social with the ESP (Engineering Summer program)🍦 All of us had a lot of fun and made new friends! 🤝

Finally, on Friday night we had our graduation dinner and ceremony with all the members of the PSI 🎉 All the students presented their final projects (each of them was a true masterpiece of art! 😅) and received their program completion certificates and lovely presents 🎁 We also nominated the best students of the program and wished everyone good luck with their Russian studies. After the ceremony, we threw a graduation party with BEL and ESP students and had a blast on the dancefloor 🪩💃🏻 The celebration went on by late night when everyone headed to State Street to enjoy the last hours in Madison 🌃

Saturday morning was followed by tears and warm wishes since everyone was leaving and had to say goodbye to each other 😭We made a big hug with the whole group and made a promise to stay in touch 🤗

We’re hoping to see each other again next year!

Pushkin 2023 forever ❤️❤️❤️ Гип-гип, ура!!! 🎉

07/18/2023

We would love to thank for sharing their amazing space with our educational community and allowing us to hold a culinary workshop for the PSI pre-college students last Monday 🍽️ We are especially grateful to the partners Jon, Armando and Juan (.biz) and the culinary staff member James () for giving us this opportunity👩🏻‍🍳It was a very memorable experience for all of us!

Out kids learned how to make Russian crepes (blini) 🥞 and tried them for the first time. Everyone enjoyed the hospitality and generosity of the hosts.

We are looking forward to coming back and savoring the amazing vegetarian dishes offers!

07/17/2023

The fourth week of the program was full of joy 🤩

We had plentiful cultural workshops: reading Russian fairytales with Olga Trubetskaya, singing Russian songs with Alexey, and dancing Russian folk dance with Anya 💃🏻 We also had a UW Admissions workshop and a lecture about Pushkin by Professor Bethea.

In their Russian lessons, the students learned how to talk about food and prepared gorgeous presentations, in which they demonstrated their own menus 🍱 🥗

On Friday, we had our weekly award ceremony, and a lot of students were nominated for the first time. We are very proud of everyone since they all have improved their Russian and writing skills throughout the past month👍

On the weekend, we visited the Maxwell fair, went to the gym and the pool, played bowling, and had a social event with the Badgers pre-college program where we fried S'mores and competed in kickball. But the highlight of the week was our trip to Wisconsin Dells. Everyone had fun riding the rollercoasters and slides at Mt. Olympus🎢

We’re excited about our final week at PSI!

07/10/2023

The third week of the PSI was very eventful! Students learned how to talk about their house and made wonderful presentations about their dream houses 🏡 Together with our counselors and Anya Nesterchouk, the onsite director of the program, they also celebrated the Independence day🇺🇸by going downtown and having some fun activities and watching fireworks in the country club 🎆

On Wednesday, students had a workshop about financial aid at UW-Madison 💰 On Thursday, they had
a conversation with Jacob Aehl, Russian Flagship Program Coordinator, where they learned about various opportunities to learn Russian at UW 🇷🇺 Later they also had a campus tour 👩🏻‍🎓 Friday's highlight was Campbell's cultural hour about Russian superstitions and our weekly "Student of the week" nominations. Students did an amazing job on their oral exam, essays, and Russian classes, and a lot of them received their awards this week 🏆🥇

On the weekend, students all had fun paddleboarding and Russian New Year's celebration. In addition, they went to the gym and later paid a visit to Professor Bethea and listened to his lecture about Pushkin. Afterwards, everyone had a delicious pizza 🍕 and played mafia and various sports games: baseball, cornball, badminton, etc. Everybody was happy to see the professor and meet his adorable dog called Bear 🐻

We're excited about the next week at PSI! 😍

07/03/2023

The second week of the program was terrific! 🔥

In their Russian classes, students learned how to describe their daily routine and prepared amazing video presentations 🎥😍 They were also introduced to Russian cultural activities such as card games🃏

On Wednesday, students had an inspiring conversation with our alumnus, Juan Gomez, who shared his experience of learning Russian and told them how he it helped him succeed in his career 🕴️

On the weekend, everyone went to Madison Farmer’s market to buy some souvenirs for family and friends. We also did a lot of sports: played soccer, basketball, badminton, went to the gym, swimming pool, ice rink, and rock climbing 🧗‍♀️ On Saturday night, we had a fun party with Just Dance and karaoke 🎉

Sunday’s highlight was the celebration of a Russian holiday called Maslenitsa with various contests and games. In addition, we had a lecture by Professor Bethea and a Russian movie night 🍿

We also nominated several students of the week 🏆 You can see one of them, Asish, in the first picture.

Finally, one of our students, Janelle, celebrated her Birthday on Wednesday. We sang Russian Birthday songs, danced, shared our B-day cards with her, and suprised her with cupcakes and candles 🎂 С днём рождения, Жаннель! 🥳

06/27/2023

The first week of the PSI program went by extremely fast 😱

At the same time, it feels like it’s been much longer than just a week since we’ve done so much!

On Monday, we had our first Russian classes with Anna Vladimirovna and Campbell and went to Picnic Point to play fun ice breakers 🧺 On the next day, we listened to a wonderful lecture by Professor Bethea about Pushkin and were assigned to write our first poem analysis 📚 In the evening, we had fun working out at the new gym 💪 Wednesday’s highlight was a cultural workshop with Anna Vladimirovna🪆On Thursday, we went to Memorial Union Terrace to watch the beautiful sunset on Lake Mendota 🌅 On Friday, we had a great lecture about global leadership taught by Valeria, and writing consultations with our amazing TAs, Maria and Bryan ✍️ Saturday was full of events: we had a State Capitol tour and a scavenger hunt on State Street. Besides, it was Pedro’s Birthday, so we had a party night with karaoke, dance, and karavai (Russian traditional dance) 🪩🥳 Finally, on Sunday we went to the pool, had community building activities, and a lecture by Professor Bethea 🧑🏻‍🏫

This week is expected to be even better!

Address

Madison, WI
53703

Telephone

+6082623379

Website

http://pushkin.wisc.edu/

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