Maria from Russia
Read about multi-talented Maria Krotovskaya from Moscow. She writes poetry, loves opera, and is getting simultaneous degrees in Russia and in New York City.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of your schoolwork? Studying in a second language is hard enough. Imagine getting two degrees simultaneously in two different continents! Well that's exactly what Maria is doing. And doing very nicely at it to boot!
Maria Krotovskaya (pronounced kro-TOV-ska-ya) has been in New York for three years. She studied ESL at the IELI for one year. She says the experience was helpful in her becoming less shy. "I learned how to open up and it helped me make many friends." She was sad to finish her ESL classes but happy to keep in touch with her new friends via e-mail, "which also helped to improve my English."
Maria applied and was accepted to Hunter College and in September will be a senior majoring in English Literature with a minor in Art History. She has many hobbies including collecting stamps and butterflies. She loves going to museums and is a budding photographer. Living in New York, she has also been able to keep up with her childhood love of the ballet and opera (her great-grandparents were musicians and ballet dancers). Have I mentioned that she's been studying piano since age 4 and speaks Italian? Maria became interested in poetry while a student in Steve Vogel's ESL class. One of her assignments was about family relationships, and Maria attributes this experience as the impetus to her continuing interest in poetry. Of course, she also learned how to write academic essays and research papers.
Maria's love of literature most likely started while she was a young girl growing up in Moscow. After graduating high school there, she started a 5-year combination BA/MA program (Linguistics), which she just completed. She is already thinking about applying to a PhD program in Russia, but can't decide what to major in - English Literature or TESOL.
But for now, Maria will have a long-deserved vacation at her family's summerhouse outside of Moscow. September will find her back in New York to finish the final year of her ‘American' education. And who knows what the future holds for this bright young lady. We wish her luck with whatever she chooses!
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