The 13th annual Undergraduate Olympiada of Spoken Russian took place on Sunday, February 25th at The College of Wooster. Over 20 students from four colleges and universities in Ohio competed in seven different categories.

The competition consisted of three sections: a poem recitation, an oral interview, and a presentation based on a topic that was chosen by each student. In addition to putting their Russian skills to the test, the competition gave the students a chance to meet and network with other Russian language learners in the state of Ohio. Congratulations to this year's winners and to all of the students who participated!

We would also like to thank everyone who came together to make this year's event a success: Dr. Zach Rewinski, the Russian faculty, and the facilities and catering staff at the College of Wooster; Judges Alicia Baca (CSEEES Outreach Coordinator), Tania Sidorenko (The College of Wooster), and our Slavic Department Graduate Students Kelly Gallagher, Jay Hadfield, Adam Johnson, Mykyta Tyshchenko, Andrey Ridling and Michelle Verbitskaya; and President of the Midwest Slavic Association and Professor at Bowling Green State University Timothy Pogacar. 

In particular we'd like to thank Mykyta Tyshchenko (PhD Student in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures) who gave an insightful informative talk on the history and culture of Ukraine. This talk also helped students understand the complexities of the usage of Russian in Ukraine and discussed some of his experiences and thoughts as a Ukrainian instructor of Russian.

Details about the 2025 Russian Undergraduate Olympiada will be announced in the autumn of 2024.

2024 Russian Undergraduate Olympiada Results

Level 1

• 1st Place: Mehdia Sadat (The College of Wooster)
• 2nd Place: Felipe Jarran Acosta (The College of Wooster)
• 3rd Place: Alice Genkin (The Ohio State University)

Level 2

• 1st Place: Walker Wood (The College of Wooster)
• 2nd Place: Ardan Carlisle (Bowling Green State University)
• 3rd Place: Quinn Cline-Cook (The Ohio State University)

Level 3

• 1st Place: Sophie Papp (The Ohio State University: CSEEES Intern, Academic Year 2023-24)
• 2nd Place: Sophie Boelk (The Ohio State University: CSEEES FLAS Fellow, Academic Year 2023-24)
• 3rd Place: Nina Anderson (The College of Wooster)

Level 4

• 1st Place: Aimma Farooqui (The Ohio State University: CSEEES FLAS Fellow, Academic Year 2023-24)

Level 5

• 1st Place: John Paul Oberst (University of Cincinnati)
• 2nd Place: Joshua Silver (The Ohio State University: CSEEES FLAS Fellow, Summer 2023)

Heritage Speakers 

Level 2

• 1st Place: Nikolai Ewing (The Ohio State University)

Level 3

• 1st Place: Denis Yasyrev (The Ohio State University)

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. Hosting at the College of Wooster was supported by a grant from the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Department of German and Russian. 

Special thanks to the Center for Slavic East European and Eurasian Studies for the Article!