The ACTT Russian Scholar Laureate Award is a prestigious award given to only 30 students from across the country. Bruriah junior P’nina Cohen, nominated by Bruriah Russian teacher, Nina Vaykhanskaya, was a recipient this year! Vykhanskaya found P’nina to be a tremendous asset to the Russian class over her two year course of study and an extremely worthy candidate: “P’nina has set an example of openness and appreciation of a new, foreign culture inside and outside of the classroom by finding interesting language learning resources and sharing them with her classmates. Her enthusiasm and desire to learn has been contagious!”

P’nina credits the positive classroom environment to her progress in the class: “Learning a new language requires making a lot of mistakes in the process. Our teacher has created an environment where we are all supportive of each other in our quest to master a language which keeps us engaged even when we get discouraged.”

Bruriah High School’s Russian course has been a fixture in the Bruriah language department for several years. The class attracts students who are interested in immersing themselves in a new culture and learning the language along the way. The school is so proud of P’nina and all of the Russian students!