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Graduate Success Stories
Sheila Dawes, '05
Like so many other Russian-major graduates, I am entirely grateful for the support, guidance, and genuine care that the Russian department staff and faculty provided me in my four years at Notre Dame. Perhaps more remarkable is their continuing interest and contact throughout my post-graduate years. It is a true joy to be counted among the department's distinguished list of graduates.
Erin Cathleen (Cate) Urban, '04
However, when I came to Notre Dame, I thought that I would only continue studying Russian to fulfill my language requirement while earning a degree in Chemistry. Things do not always turn out the way we think they will, though, and half way through freshman year, I decided I did not like labs, dropped the chemistry major, and signed on to be a Russian language and literature major. Over the next two-and-a-half years, I delved into Russian literature. During my time at Notre Dame, I was also able to travel to Russia on two occasions -- once for a spring break adventure to St. Petersburg and Russia, and once to Moscow for a semester through ACTR, again. Both of these trips really verified my love for the region and culture.
When I graduated from Notre Dame, I started graduate school at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) at Georgetown University, thanks to a Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship. At Georgetown, I continued studying Russian, began learning Ukrainian, and learned more about the region in general. During grad school, I was able to work in two very interesting internships. I was a research assistant at the Kennan Institute, where I helped a Russian scholar do research on Russian women writers in exile. I was also a production assistant with Team Productions, where I helped with the History Channel documentary on Richard Nixon. The documentary aired in the fall of 2006.
Over the course of two years pursuing an MA, my interests became more focused on democratization and women's issues in the former Soviet Union. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was a perfect fit for me after graduation. At NED I am an Assistant Project Manager for the World Movement for Democracy. I work mostly with human rights organizations in the former Soviet Union as well as with the larger women's network, known as the Women's Learning Partnership. My job includes researching current events, organizing and creating resources for human rights defenders, and disseminating information to the participants of the World Movement for Democracy. I get to travel for my job, use my language skills, and continue studying Russian and Ukrainian.
Jim Stevens, '02 During my second stint in Moscow, I was able to intern at a British law firm that had an office in Moscow. There I was able to witness the ins-and-outs of how law is practiced in Russia. That experience confirmed my suspicion that I wanted to be a lawyer and so, only two weeks after graduating from ND, I enrolled in the joint JD/LLM program at Duke University. While at Duke, I focused my studies upon International and Comparative law. I credit my Russian degree with giving me the opportunity to enter Duke's joint degree program, where I not only acquired a great law degree but had the freedom to study foreign legal systems. After my first year at Duke, I was even fortunate enough to spend a summer in Geneva, Switzerland studying international commerce.
Upon graduating from Duke, I spent a year clerking for a judge on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. I am now an associate in the law firm of Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston, TX. V&E, as it is commonly known, is one of the world's leading energy law firms. In selecting V&E, I looked for an organization in which I could best utilize my international background. The fact that V&E has an office in Moscow means there is a definite possibility that I will be practicing law in Russia in the near future.
Emily Locher, '97 When I decided to attend Notre Dame, I knew I had to take a foreign language. I had studied French all through high school and wanted to try something new. Because Russian history and literature had always interested me, I chose Russian, not realizing what an impact it would have on my life.
I loved my freshman year Russian language classes, and I decided to spend second semester sophomore year studying in St. Petersburg, Russia. I experienced some of the best times of my life during that semester. Not only did my Russian language skills improve dramatically, but also I was able study Russian art, culture, and literature. I also had many opportunities to travel throughout Eastern Europe. I enjoyed the semester so much that I decided to work in Moscow the following summer on an internship sponsored by the Notre Dame Council on International Business Development.
I graduated from Notre Dame in 1997 and moved to New York to work for a large asset management firm specializing in hedge fund and hedge fund-style products. Because of the international nature of the hedge fund industry, I was able to use my Russian skills on the job. After working for two years, I began the four-year JD/MBA program at Duke University (an idea that originated with a Russian professor freshman year at ND!). During those years, my Russian background proved very useful, both academically and also during the job recruitment process. Knowing Russian is an unusual job qualification, and I found that U.S. law firms who were building a presence in Eastern Europe highly valued such language abilities. In my experience, having Russian language skills on my resume has opened many doors and given me some unique employment opportunities.
After completing my JD and MBA, my career has continued in the asset management industry with a particular focus on hedge funds. The 21st century has witnessed rapid expansion of the globalization that began in the 20th century. Asset management has followed this trend, and the ability to communicate in a second language is a highly useful skill.
My Russian major at Notre Dame was one of the highlights of my college experience. Some of the greatest professors at ND teach in the Russian department, and I was really lucky to spend four years with them. Since college, these same professors have been a great source of advice and support to me, for which I am very grateful. In addition, some of my best friends from college and the most entertaining people I know studied Russian. My enthusiasm for Russian culture and literature remains, and I fondly remember my Russian studies at Notre Dame.
Molly Peeney, '95 Chris Donahoe, '88 A seminal moment was a 1986 summer language tour in Moscow and Leningrad, in which I joined a number of students from my Notre Dame class. Those two months were among the best and most inspiring in my life, and they strengthened my resolve to try to make something out of this impossible language. I returned from the USSR and completed the rest of my studies at Notre Dame, with a double major in Russian and International Relations.
For the next seven years, I followed other career pursuits that temporarily led me away from Russian. To the eternal regret of Professor Marullo and my mother (who I am sure were conspiring together), I served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for two years and then (to the eternal satisfaction of Professor Marullo and my mother) went to law school. During law school, I did undertake one study tour in Russia and Poland in 1991, as the Soviet Union was undergoing terminal change, and after graduating from law school in 1993, I spent a semester in Moscow trying to refresh my skills. That was a very entertaining four months, as Yeltsin turned the guns upon his former comrades in the White House and Moscow was convulsed in civil strife.
After two years practicing law in Los Angeles, I took the plunge and went to work for a tiny joint-venture law firm in Vladivostok, Russia. My Russian skills picked up tremendously at that point, as none of the Russian lawyers in the office spoke English, and all documents were produced in Russian. Although that firm collapsed shortly thereafter, I was able to continue my employment in Kazakhstan, where I spent the next five years either working on commercial law development for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or running a law office. As a contractor for USAID, I worked with the Ministry of Justice and Parliament to adopt a number of pieces of legislation. I drafted laws in Russian and had the privilege of testifying at Parliamentary committees on the pieces on which I was working in Russian. For my two years at the helm of a law office, I had as my primary client the Government of Kazakhstan, and therefore was constantly meeting with senior government officials and conducting all communications solely in Russian.
After five years, I went back to the United States for an MBA, and then returned to work as a USAID contractor in the Balkans. Since 2002, I have been running large economic reform projects in Kosovo and Montenegro. I am now studying Serbo-Croatian, and my Russian background is definitely a plus in that regard. My son, who was born while I was working in Kazakhstan, speaks fluent Russian and Serbo-Croatian, to my simultaneous satisfaction and envy.
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