By Master Sgt. Igor Poklad
DTRA Linguist Liaison Office
Seven students at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Interpreting Course and one Advanced Russian student received awards from the American Council of Teachers of Russian for their entries in the “18th Annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest.” All eight students study at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Continuing Education Directorate located in Seaside, California.
(Photo by Patrick Bray, DLIFLC Public Affairs)
MONTEREY, Calif. – Seven students at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Interpreting Course and one Advanced Russian student received awards from the American Council of Teachers of Russian for their entries in the “18th Annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest.” All eight students were recognized May 23 at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Continuing Education Directorate located in Seaside, California.
Staff Sgt. Hunter Behrens received a silver medal in Category A, Level 4 (Students who do not and have never spoken Russian or any other Slavic language at home, who have had more than 400 contact hours of instruction in Russian). Sgt. Samuel DeBolt, Staff Sgt. Kyle Tomaszewski and Staff Sgt. Yadgar Raswll received honorable mention in this category.
Sgt. Aaron Jaramillo received Honorable Mention in Category A, Level 3 (Students who do not and have never spoken Russian or any other Slavic language at home and have had more than 250 contact hours, but fewer than 400 contact hours of instruction in Russian).
Tech. Sgt. Dmitriy Sklyar and Sgt. Khurshed Madaminov received a silver medal in Category C, Level 4 (Students who speak Russian with their families, and who attended school for fewer than five years in Russia or the former Soviet Union and may have had to relearn reading and writing skills after emigration, and who have had fewer than 60 contact hours of instruction in college). Petty Officer 1st Class Eugenijus Kulesovas received a bronze medal in this category.
In this year’s contest, 1,326 essays were submitted from 67 universities, colleges, and institutions from across the nation. The essays were reviewed at Moscow State University in Russia. Three judges read each essay and independently ranked them.
The continued success of the DTRA Interpreting Course students in this contest is the result of a balanced combination of an outstanding program, a team of skilled instructors and highly motivated students.
DLIFLC provides resident instruction in 17 languages at the Presidio of Monterey, California, with the capacity to instruct another 65 languages in Washington, D.C., and has graduated more than 220,000 linguists since its inception in 1941.
In addition, multiple language training detachments exist at sites in the U.S., Europe, Hawaii and Korea spanning all the U.S. geographic combatant commands in support of the total force.
