Enrollments

[Brewer, Michael]

All,

It seems that there is a large gap in the field when it comes to advising
students (or reassuring parents) as to why they should study Russian.  When
there have been attempts to do this, (to my knowledge) the arguments for
studying Russian have been quite general (e.g. "The government will always
need competent Russian speakers for security reasons." or "You should really
read the great Russian authors in the original", etc.)

I have begun work on a webpage (a portion of a larger website) intended to
identify the possible career paths for people who have, as one of their
competencies, proficiency in Russian, what other competencies might be
needed in those career paths, the forecast for jobs in the area, etc.

This is fairly new ground for me and I would be interested in working with
others on this project.  I have begun this work by looking at the field I
know most about, Slavic Librarianship.  I am currently writing an article on
the possibilities in this field, the necessary competencies, and how to
achieve them.  (This information will, in a truncated form, also be put on
the aforementioned webpage).

This is the kind of work we need in other areas.  For example: What
non-profit organizations are doing work in Russia (or deal with Russia) and
what are the career paths and required competencies in this area?  What are
the possible career paths in government work for Russian speakers?  What
other competencies are required? How does one go about pursuing this kind of
career?  What areas of business are open to speakers of Russian?  What about
translation?  What kinds of jobs are available to those interested in
education/teaching (not only at the university level, but also at the
community college and K-12 level)?  We all know people who eventually found
their way into these areas of work (mostly by chance).  It should be our
goal to map out these various possible career paths, so that students can
understand upfront the universe of options available to them (as well as the
additional competencies that may be required of them, depending on the
career path they choose).

If anyone has done any of this work in some sort of focused, useable way, I
would be very interested in hearing about it, and in partnering with them to
expand on this work.

Michael Brewer
German & Slavic Studies Librarian
University of Arizona Library, A210
1510 E. University
P.O. Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721-0055
Fax 520.621.9733
Voice 520.621.9919
brewerm at u.library.arizona.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Lauren Leighton [mailto:laurengl at PTWI.NET]
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 7:52 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Enrollments

Whatever happened to "Why Study Russian?" Surely AATSEEL must have a few
remaining copies; and if not, the pamphlet is well worth reprinting for
members and other interested persons. I don't remember when the last batch
was done. I do remember that when it was done, Zita Dabars did an additional
deluxe, coffee-table version--the kind of gorgeous publication deans and
provosts like to leave lying around their waiting room. The first version,
ca. 1940s (?), was typed with carbon copies. Helen Yakobson and others did
ever better, more elaborate versions through the years. The fact that it
continued to be used suggests that it was an effective means of educating
students, administrators, and others about the value of Russian.
        P.S. I'm sending copies of this to Kathleen Dillon and Ben Rifkin.
        P.P.S. In the event that a new version is wanted, Ben's recent set
of
arguments for study of Russian is surely worth including.

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