Space exploration, health care cooperation and people-to-people exchanges were the winning essays in the "Through the Eyes of Youth: 200 Years of US-Russia Relations" bicentennial essay competition for high school students in Russia and the United States. The Russian winners, from Yakutia, Dubna and St. Petersburg, were announced May 10th.
More than 300 high school students from 80 cities, towns and villages in Russia and the United States submitted essays answering the question: "In 1807, the U.S. and Russia agreed to establish official diplomatic relations. In your opinion, what has been the most significant example of U.S. -Russia cooperation in the past 200 years?"
The competition, held in eight regions across Russia's 11 time zones and in Massachusetts, was cosponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, the Fulbright Program in Russia, Moscow State University's Foreign Language Division and the Massachusetts Historical Society of Boston. Winners in Russia and the United States include:
1st Place Russia Winner - Aleksandr Perepechenov, age 15 from Mirny, Sakha (Yakutiya) Republic, who wrote on The First Handshake in Space
2nd place, Russia - Yelizaveta Chugunova, age 15, from St. Petersburg, who wrote on Cooperation in Healthcare
3d place, Russia - Yana Ashmanskaya, age 16, from Dubna, Moscow Oblast, who wrote on Heart to Heart Diplomacy on the Sister City partnership between Dubna and La Crosse, Wisconsin.
In the United States, the winner is Amanda George, a student at the Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, MA, for her essay on International Student Exchanges .
Moscow and Moscow Oblast: Maria Anakhova, Kolomna, Moscow Oblast; Dmitriy Volkov, Moscow.
St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast: Kseniya Karmolina, Lomonosov, Leningrad Oblast; Varvara Averyanova, St. Petersburg; Darya Alekseyeva, Tosno, Leningrad Oblast
North-West: Margarita Alekhina, Petrozavodsk, Karelian Republic; Maksim Usinin, Arkhangelsk.
Central Russia: Dmitriy Politov, Michurinsk, Tambov Oblast; Igor Ivanov, Gubkin, Belgorod Oblast; Vladislav Mikhaylov, Smolensk; Kseniya Rusinova, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast.
The Volga Region and the South of Russia: Yekaterina Pirogova, Samara; Valeriya Sadovnikova, Ulyanovsk; Anna Vovchenko, Volgograd; Yelena Britvina, Novaya Nadezhda, Volgograd Oblast.
The Urals Area and the Volga-Vyatka Region: Nataliya Meteleva, Izhevsk; Yekaterina Petropavlovskaya, Yoshkar-Ola; Darya Ryabchikova, Yoshkar-Ola; Aleksandr Yudkevich, Nizhny Novgorod; Alesya Semenova, poselok Morki, Mari El.
Far East: Ilya Ryzhikov, Khabarovsk; Maria Spivakova, Birobidzhan, Yevreyskaya AO; Eva Umanets, Nakhodka, Primorskiy Kray.
The top two Russian winners will travel to the United States to take part in the "Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Summer Institute" at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in July. All participants will receive certificates for their contributions with the top schools receiving complimentary books and materials. Winning essays are posted on the U.S. Embassy's web site at www.usembassy.ru.
Most successful essays presented historic events through personal and family experience, and demonstrated fresh and original interpretation of significant moments in the history of bilateral relations. The contest helped develop students' creative thinking and writing skills, stimulated them to study new material and search for information, and promoted the use of information technologies in education.
Student essays covered an array of historic events, including the sale of Alaska, cooperation in health care and science, the anti-fascist coalition of WWII, and the value of people-to-people exchanges. Many students analyzed the role of such prominent political figures as John Quincy Adams, the first U.S. diplomatic envoy to Russia; and leaders such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mikhail Gorbachev. Many students wrote about the "youngest ambassador" Samantha Smith, a teenager who traveled to the USSR at the height of the Cold War.
Two hundred years of U.S.-Russian diplomatic relations have taught us that Americans and Russians are essential partners in promoting peace and prosperity around the world. Every effort we can make to strengthen that partnership is a wise investment in our common future. -- Ambassador John D. Negroponte, US Deputy Secretary of State at the Eastwest Institute 2007 Annual Awards Dinner on April 25, 2007 in Washington, DC.
200th Anniversary of U.S. - Russia Diplomatic Relations The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has launched a new website to commemorate the 200th anniversary of U.S. - Russia diplomatic relations during 2007. Available at www.usembassy.ru, the website provides resources for students and scholars plus showcases events designed to mark two centuries of competition and cooperation in the arts, science, health, sports, space, education, trade, nuclear cooperation, rule-of-law, philanthropy and world affairs.
Contest
