NSLI-Y 2025 Latvia – Week 1
Привет and Sveiki from Latvia! Our names are Jonathon and Abby, and we are the Resident Directors for the ACES NSLI-Y program in Riga this summer. Each week, we will share some of our favorite moments and feature some student perspectives from our program. We are so excited to share about our first week of the program with you!
After months of preparation and excitement, our eighteen students gathered in Chicago for Pre–Departure Orientation. At Pre–Departure Orientation, the students were able to finally meet each other in–person and learn more about the program, such as program expectations and their culminating projects, alongside playing games and enjoying meals with the students from the ACES Taiwan and Turkey cohorts.
After Pre–Departure Orientation wrapped up, the 18 students and Resident Directors were off for international departure! Our flight, with a layover in Frankfurt, went quite smoothly, despite the long travel day. We arrived in Latvia on Friday afternoon, and the students spent the rest of the weekend getting to know their host families, exploring the city, and — of course — recovering from jet lag.
On Monday, the students’ classes began at a local university here in Riga. The students were separated into two classes to provide more individualized learning and to maximize opportunities for speaking and participating in class. They were able to meet their teachers, and their Russian language–learning journey was off! By the end of the first week, students have covered several topics, including professions, countries and nationalities, and how to say other languages they may speak in Russian. On Friday, the classes had their first exam, and it was very exciting to see them be able to speak so much and answer questions in Russian. We are so proud of them!
Just down the street from the university is a Latvian restaurant where we all have lunch every day. There, the students are able to enjoy traditional Latvian cuisine. Also near the university are a couple cafes where the students can grab coffee or do homework.
The students have also been learning outside of class. On Tuesday, we had our first weekly RD meeting, where we discussed their culminating projects. The discussion included the expectations for the final project, guidelines, potential topics, and the students participated in an activity to help brainstorm ideas for their projects. We are looking forward to seeing the students present their final projects, because they get to choose their own topics and do research themselves — they will be super interesting and show off the students’ progress in their Russian language journey!
Another activity we had this week was a peer partner activity, where the students practiced their Russian with local Latvian students, who are similar in age to our students. This week’s peer partner activity focused on introductions between the students in Russian, where all of the students got to know each other, learned fun facts about their peers, and learned how to talk about their interests in Russian. For the last segment of the activity, our NSLI-Y students prepared questions as a part of their culminating projects to ask their Latvian peers. It was a very successful first peer partner session, and we are so proud of how much the students have progressed in just one week!
The students have also been able to explore various places around Riga. Their host families have shown them around the city and even taken them to the nearby beach, Jurmala! We have had a few warm days of around 30 degrees Celsius, where the students have been able to enjoy swimming at the beach. To celebrate the Fourth of July, the students took a group outing to McDonald’s to celebrate with food from home.
We are excited to keep you up to date on our adventures and share how well the students are doing! Thank you for reading, and we’ll see you next week!
All of the NSLI-Y Russian in Riga students, Resident Directors, and the Overseas Partner Coordinator at Pre-Departure Orientation in Chicago, Illinois!
Students Cham, Malia, Ella, and Sophia getting to know the city!
Students Malia, Ella, Silvano, and Xavier (taking the picture) studying Russian in one of many parks in Riga!
NSLI-Y Russian students boarding their flight from Frankfurt to their final destination: Riga, Latvia!
Students Veronica and Astrid enjoying the company of a cat at our lunchtime location!