The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies congratulates its ten graduate Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship recipients for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Luke Bendick is a second-year graduate student in the MA in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies program. He has been awarded FLAS to study 3rd-year Polish. After graduation, he hopes to work in the intelligence community specializing in Eastern Europe.

Kelly Gallagher, a second-year graduate student in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, has been awarded FLAS for 6th-year Russian. She aspires to a career in academia as a professor of Russian language and literature.

Eleanor Grazier is completing an MA in Russian for the Professions with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in East European and Eurasian Studies. With her FLAS award, she will study 6th-year Russian. She plans to explore career options in teaching, government and translation. 

Jay Hadfield, a PhD student in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, will study 6th-year Russian. Jay plans to become a professor, sharing his love of Russian language, literature and culture with future generations of students.

Sarah Hohman will add Polish to her repertoire of languages while pursuing her MA in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. Sarah aspires to a career coordinating study abroad and exchange programs in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, focusing especially on countries that have been underserved by such programs in the past.

Adam Johnson, a second-year graduate student in the Russian for the Professions MA, has been awarded FLAS to study 6th-year Russian. He aspires to become a government translator or analyst.

Liam Martin is a second-year MA student in the Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies program. He will study 5th-year Russian and aspires to serve as a Political or Consular Officer with the U.S. Department of State after he completes his degree.

Devon Rancourt begins the first year of the MA in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies with a FLAS Fellowship to study Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. Devon has previously studied Russian, Bulgarian and Macedonian, and she aspires to use these skills in the education sector, expanding access to the study of Balkan languages and linkages between the US and the region.

Sascha Rohde, a first-year graduate student in the MA in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies program, will study 4th-year Russian. Sascha’s studies will focus on Russia and its relationship in the socio-cultural space it shares with other former Soviet states, and he hopes to ultimately work in academia or diplomacy.

Chaeli Rule, a Ph.D. student in Linguistics specializing in the languages of the Caucasus, has been awarded FLAS to study 2nd-year Russian. She is interested in researching language contact and change between the indigenous languages of the Caucasus and Russian. She plans for an academic career in linguistics, continuing this research and sharing it with future students.

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 Summer 2025 and Academic Year 2025-2026 fellowships will open in fall 2024.  

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