The College of Humanities has been awarded a $100,000 Startalk grant to fund its Russian Language & Culture Immersion Program. Startalk is a component
program of the National Security Language Initiative, which seeks to expand and improve the teaching and learning of strategically important world languages that are not widely taught in the United States. CSUN's residential summer immersion program is geared toward preparing students to enter a global workforce, providing accelerated training for highly motivated students who wish to expand their professional options and whose academic and/or career trajectories would be greatly enhanced by Russian language and culture proficiency.
Project Director Dina Mokhnatkin has taught Russian language courses at CSUN since 2007 and has coordinated its summer immersion program since 2008 as part of the CSU Consortium for the Strategic Language Initiative. Past immersion program participants are currently making use of their multilingual proficiency in business, academic, government, and military careers. Recognizing the success of these graduates, the College of Humanities has expanded its Russian programming, and the Startalk grant provides a great boost to this important language initiative.
