The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies congratulates its seven graduate Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship recipients for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Luke Bendick is a first year graduate student in the MA in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies program. He has been awarded FLAS to study 2nd-year Polish. After graduation, he hopes to work in the intelligence community specializing in Eastern Europe.

Eleanor Grazier, a graduate student in the Russian for the Professions MA in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, will study 5th-year Russian. She plans to explore career options in teaching, government and translation. 

Christopher Leger is a PhD student in the History Department. His research on the Soviet Union will be aided by his study of 4th-year Russian. He plans to pursue a career in academia.

Clayton Marr, a PhD student in the Linguistics Department, has won a FLAS to study 1st-year Turkish and increase his repertoire of Balkan languages. He plans to use his knowledge of computational linguistics and regional languages as a professor or a Balkan area analyst.

Liam Martin is a first-year MA student in the Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies program. He will study 4th-year Russian and aspires to serve as a Political or Consular Officer with the U.S. Department of State after he completes his degree.

Andrey Ridling is a second year Master's student in the Russian for the Professions program in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures who will enroll in 6th-year Russian. He plans to pursue a career in cybersecurity or intelligence upon completion of his degree.

Siobhan Seigne is a PhD student in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures. Her long-term career goal is to work in either the Foreign Service as a public diplomacy officer or in academia as a professor of Russian or Slavic literature. She has been awarded FLAS to study 2nd-year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. 

Academic year FLAS Fellowships are awarded to undergraduate, graduate, or professional students who are enrolled in a course of study at Ohio State that requires both language and area studies expertise. Students are required to take one language and one area studies course in both autumn and spring semesters, completing one academic year language sequence. The fellowship provides a stipend of $20,000 and tuition support up to $18,000 for graduate and professional students, though Graduate School contributions cover all tuition charges for most fellows. The application for Academic Year 2024-2025 fellowships will open in fall 2023.  

Visit our other article to learn about this year's undergraduate FLAS fellows.