June 10, 2008 - Although Russia is thousands of miles away, Shaker High School students demonstrated their mastery of the foreign language right here in the Capital Region earlier this spring during the Russian Olympiad.

Every Shaker student who participated in the full-day academic competition received awards. Twelve students received gold medals, while six won silver medals and one received a bronze.

Gold medalists: Heather Cameron, Joseph Chappell, Casey Connolly, John Dzialo, Andrew Farrell, Anastasia Garseau, Tami Hartshorn, Elizabeth Hennessy, Sarah Lamountain, Zhaokun Ma, Rotem Rusak and Margaret Weis.

Silver medalists: Eden Alexanian, Agnes Kline, Grace Rhee, Kelly Rowland, Rose Silberman-Gorn and Emma Torncello.

Bronze medalist: John Sneeringer.

In addition to winning a gold medal, senior Andrew Farrell won the grand prize—a three-week summer school scholarship award to Moscow, Russia. Zhaokun Ma was named the alternate in the event that Farrell is unable to attend.

“The Russian teachers, Kathryn Burgess, Anna Shkaf and Sara Detmer, were extremely pleased with the students’ overall results in this prestigious competition,” said Foreign Language Supervisor Galina Kats.

The competition is spoken entirely in Russian. More than 120 students statewide answered questions about politics, economics, geography, literature and culture, as well as student interests, school sports, home and family life.

For each category, students were assigned to different judges, many of whom are Russian professors or native speakers. Students who used the language with great facility for their level and ability were recognized with scholarships and awards.

The Olympiad is conducted each year by the University at Albany’s Russian Program in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.