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The University of New Mexico

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Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu

May 10, 2007

Three UNM Russian Studies Students Receive Awards

Three University of New Mexico Russian Studies students have received awards and scholarships.

The American Council of Teachers of Russian has chosen Eulogio Crespin as a Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate. Crespin, a senior, has been a “mainstay” in the Russian Studies program since enrolling in Russian 101, according to Russian Studies Professor Byron Lindsey.

Lindsey, Crespin’s nominator, wrote, “Eulogio is the pace setter—assiduous, analytical, keen of memory, also unassuming, understated—but as if inspired by his studies of Russia.”

Crespin traveled to the Ukraine four times, working with a small volunteer group. He and his friends did impressive social work in orphanages and schools in small towns near Dnepropetrovsk. His descriptions of the conditions and challenges he faced are graphic and moving, Lindsey wrote.

Lucas Townsend received the National Security Education Program David L. Boren Scholarship, given to U.S. undergraduates to study abroad. Scholarship recipients study in regions of the world critical to U.S. interests, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

Lindsey, Townsend’s nominator, wrote, “He has demonstrated great self discipline, precise skills of analysis and unflagging energy to excel in the variety of disciplines in our Russian Studies major.”

Townsend spent five weeks in Russia last summer, participating in a program Lindsey directed that took them to Moscow and Tver. “It was his first time abroad and I found him admirably quick to understand and adjust to his surroundings and generally showed fine sensitivity to the social and cultural environment. He made rapid advances in his command of Russian,” Lindsey wrote.

Townsend’s goal is to apply his Russian Studies training to further his professional position at the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agency.

Hannah Morrow was one of 30 U.S. students out of 550 applicants to receive a scholarship for a month of study at the InterContact Intensive Russian Institute in Tver. The award comes from the Central Association of Russian Teachers of America.

The Critical Language Scholarships are part of the National Security Language Initiative, a federal effort designed to increase the number of Americans learning and teaching critical need foreign languages.

Morrow is a dual major, studying both Russian Studies and history. She plans to apply to an international studies master’s program with a Russian emphasis.

Lindsey said, “Hannah is a remarkable scholar, but also a generous volunteer for all our program’s efforts, which have made a difference at UNM.”

Russian Studies is in the UNM Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in the College of Arts and Sciences.

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