Sydney Stotter ’17 Will Study in Kazakhstan as Boren Scholar
April 25, 2017by Cathy Campo
Sydney Stotter ’17
As a recipient of the prestigious Boren Scholarship, Sydney Stotter ’17 will study Russian in Almaty, Kazakhstan for an academic year.
In Kazakhstan, Sydney will enroll in a Kazakh language course and intensive Russian classes, which include coursework in speech and phonetics, grammar, and writing. She’ll also have the opportunity to take courses in history, political science, or media studies course and to hold an internship.
Sydney discovered her passion for the Russian language during her senior year of high school.
“After studying Latin and French for a number of years, I decided to try something that I knew would be challenging,” she says.
Soon after picking up the language, she became fascinated by Russian history, culture, and politics.
“I don't think I could have anticipated then how U.S.-Russian relations would develop and lead to the current situation today, but it has been extremely interesting to follow,” she says.
A Russian major, Sydney’s thesis focuses on cinematic representations of Word War II. She is primarily interested in how contemporary Russian media outlets cover the current political system, the recent American presidential election, and other international events.
Sydney is particularly excited for her year abroad, which she hopes will improve both her language and cultural proficiency.
Boren Scholarships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This year, the prestigious scholarship was awarded to 4% of applicants.
Information on the many fellowships available to Bryn Mawr students can be found here.
