Alumni Update: Aleksei Terin, Russia

Hi everyone! I am Aleksei Terin from Russia and a 2018/2019 Global UGRAD alum. I spent a spring semester at Minnesota State University – Mankato. I experienced significant personal growth as a result of my Global UGRAD experience, and I’d like to share how it changed my perspective and attitude. My participation changed my attitude for the better toward life and deepened my understanding of the culture of the United States and my own country.

Since returning to my home university, I have continued working toward my bachelor’s degree in foreign language teaching. This is the last year of the program, so almost all students are preoccupied with writing a graduate thesis. Currently, I am doing research on Gastronomical Lexical Items in the Harry Potter Series and teaching at a comprehensive school. In other words, I am doing a survey of food names from books for children and creating curriculum from that research. With the help of my professor, I did a survey called Historical Origin of Gastronomical Items and their Translation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. I entered this study in the International Scientific-research competition under philology category and won, and as a result the research was added to the Russian Science Citation Index.

Beside my academic success, I keep on touch with my friends, especially with other Global UGRAD alumni. These continued relationships remain mutually beneficial, and we all encourage and inspire each other to improve ourselves, do better in our endeavors, and make each other stronger. This is wonderful!

We do follow each other on Instagram, Facebook and other social media networks. Staying connected on social media creates amazing conversations about new experiences after our arrival home, allows us to look back and remember the Summit in Washington, DC, and so on. A 2018/19 Global UGRAD alumnus, Daria Ponomarenko and I recently discussed our experience together, and she stated that all doors are open, and the only thing you need is to be willing to enter them. Her statement echoes the ideas that Global UGRAD provided us.

“Never give up, keep your chin up, look on the bright side and think BIG!” So, I encourage everybody to stay on track, and take your life experiences and enlarge and broaden them!

Written by Aleksei Terin, Russia, 2018/19, Minnesota State University – Mankato

 

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