By Mayur Somalinga – Staff Reporter

Cameron Neely, a student at Jonathan Law for the past three years is now studying abroad in Moldova for a year, learning Russian in collaboration with the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y). Cameron has been documenting his experiences during the past four months and will continue to do so, on his Instagram blog (@chisinaucamecdotes). Although Cameron posts daily on his blog, it only provides so much information about his time overseas, so Advocate Staff Reporter, Mayur Somalinga, decided to reach out to Cameron Neely to learn more about how studying Russian in Moldova has been so far.

Mayur Somalinga: Could you please briefly describe what NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) is about?

Cameron Neely: NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) is a U.S. Department of State program that provides full merit-based scholarships for high school students and recent high school graduates to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs. The NSLI-Y program aims to provide opportunities to American youth that will spark a lifetime interest in foreign languages and cultures. NSLI-Y programs offer intensive language immersion in a variety of locations around the world. Beginners are welcome to apply for any of the target languages; previous language experience is not required.

MS: What inspired you to join NSLI-Y and beyond that, why did you choose to study Russian?

CN: I am an alumni of the 2018 NSLI-Y Russian summer program (my program was also located in Chisinau, Moldova), so I applied again knowing how great of an impact full immersion has on your language level! I went from beginner in Russian to intermediate in just one summer, so I am so excited and grateful to be spending an entire year here! As far as Russian: Russian has been something that I have been interested in for about three years now. It started out of general interest in languages and linguistics – Spanish was my favorite class, and I became very invested in Finnish language and culture too. When I stumbled across Russian, I immediately fell in love with it – I started small with learning the alphabet just for fun, which turned into some new words and greetings, to numbers, and then before I knew it, I found myself at Yale University’s language program for high school students, “World CLASS,” in a Russian class. I learned a lot in the class, especially as my teacher was a native speaker from Azerbaijan and the class was very small (five students.) After studying Russian in Moldova with NSLI-Y in the summer of 2018, I participated in the World CLASS program again, but there was originally a problem since I was intermediate and they only offered a beginner and advanced class. They were kind enough to offer me a one on one class with a native Russian speaker studying at Yale on a Fulbright scholarship, and I could not be more grateful! Finally, I am here in Moldova, studying Russian for my third year.

MS: What has been your favorite thing about being in Moldova so far?

CN: This is the hardest question you have given me! If I only had to pick one, I would say that Moldova has given me more opportunities to pursue my interests than I could have even imagined! I go to school here for four hours a day, and all of my lessons are related to Russian language – I have two Russian grammar classes a day, and then two phonetics/speech classes. We also have specialized classes weekly to learn more about Russian culture. To give you an idea, the names of some of the classes are “The Russian Mentality,” “Russian Songs,” “Russian Geography,” etc. We also have constant excursions within the city, and there are also out of city day trips that we go on in the spring and fall! We also have language partners, which are Moldovan volunteers that spend time with us to further our Russian skills. We all live with our own Russian speaking host families too, so we are definitely in an immersive environment! Russian is not 100 percent of my time here though – I often volunteer at International Language cafes to help Moldovan students practice their English. I host tables where we talk about a certain subject (for example, topics in the past have been Halloween, Outer Space, Thanksgiving, and Christmas is coming up!) and then play interactive games (charades is a favorite!). I also sometimes volunteer by cleaning up trash in parks, and I will definitely be volunteering more in the future. I do a lot more here (they keep us busy!) but that is a start… 

MS: What advice do you have for those who want to join NSLI-Y or just learn Russian in general?

CN: I think my answer could apply to any language. There are so many resources out there, no matter how old you are! NSLI-Y is not the only program that is completely paid for – there is also YES Abroad, CLS, and tons of other programs that have scholarships available, and that is only for high school.

MS: What plans do you have after your year abroad in Moldova?

CN: I am not sure yet – I have a few ideas, but it is all going to depend on many things. I am looking into other programs similar to the one I am on now where I would be able to study Russian and graduate high school / apply to colleges at the same time, but if that doesn’t end up happening, I can of course simply go back to Jonathan Law. There is also the program at Law connected with Housatonic where I could get some college classes out of the way, so I would definitely do that if I end up in Milford next year.