Russian major wins scholarship for grad school at OSU

Bridget Stonchus (class of '16) has the rare distinction of graduating from Wayne State summa cum laude with dual bachelor's degrees in Russian and business. Not only has she completed excellent work in her classes, but she was also extremely active in extracurricular activities.

As vice president of the WSU Slavic Klub for two years, she helped organize a number of events, including Slavic Christmas parties, a Slavic dance party, Slavic cuisine workshops, and booths at the Ann Arbor Russian festival and the Schoolcraft College Multicultural Fair. She came to Wayne State on a Presidential Scholarship, and in 2015, she was awarded the Frank Filipek Scholarship and the highly competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to do an internship at an international business association and study abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia.

She also interned at Fiat Chrysler and DTE; the latter offered her a full-time job after graduation. She accomplished all of this while working for most of her time at Wayne. Thanks to her outstanding achievements in both the Humanities and Finance, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the prestigious national honors society, in May.

Bridget would like to pursue a career in international education, which she believes is one of the most important ways to bring about cross-cultural understanding, so critical to the success of international diplomacy today. Offered generous scholarships by several universities, she will begin a master's in Slavic and East European studies at the Ohio State University in the fall on a university fellowship. She will be greatly missed by both faculty and her fellow students. We wish her luck in her next steps in what has already been a remarkable career.