{"id":33257,"date":"2026-09-01T18:59:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/?p=33257"},"modified":"2026-09-03T03:06:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:06:02","slug":"from-storytelling-stations-to-cooking-contests-russian-studies-students-build-connections-with-the-twin-cities-russian-speaking-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/from-storytelling-stations-to-cooking-contests-russian-studies-students-build-connections-with-the-twin-cities-russian-speaking-community\/","title":{"rendered":"From Storytelling Stations to Cooking Contests: Russian Studies Students Build Connections with the Twin Cities’ Russian-Speaking Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can a small class of seven students make an impact on a community of 8,000 people? In her community-engagement and project-based course Community, Identity, and Engagement, Professor Tamara von Schmidt-Pauli and her students set out to prove they could\u2014with everything from cookies to crafts to cookbooks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-listed between Russian Studies and Education, the course centered the Russian-speaking community in the Twin Cities through a critical partnership with the American Russian Center. The Center serves a diverse population of Russian-speakers from a variety of countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(von Schmidt-Pauli explains that the community has been understudied, so it is hard to estimate the exact number of community members. Her estimate originates from a Facebook group for Russian-speakers in Minnesota with roughly 8,000 members.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe course asks students to put everything they know in theory into practice,\u201d von Schmidt-Pauli explains. \u201cIt\u2019s about learning about yourself\u2014how can I apply my talents best to serve my community? How do I understand their needs and help them, and create something from ground zero, implement it, and run it?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grappling with the cultural nuances of a diverse, multiethnic, and multilingual community\u2014one also experiencing war-related trauma from the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia\u2014is something von Schmidt-Pauli asked her students to embrace as an opportunity to center the community and their needs. \u201cWorking with a community like this really opens students\u2019 eyes,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need to understand what the community is about and what barriers they face.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With generous support from the American Russian Center, three teams of students set out to create interactive, culturally-responsive projects that addressed real community needs. Every stage was theirs\u2014researching the topics, designing the materials, adapting the content, and then bringing it into the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work culminated in a public community event at the Center, where the teams launched their projects through activities, lessons, and meaningful time spent with over 250 community members across generations. Projects ranged from bilingual educational materials on substance addiction; a \u201cpathway to citizenship\u201d board game; a community cookbook initiative featuring culturally resonant recipes in accessible formats, with a companion website; and an interactive art and storytelling station inspired by Soviet animator and artist Vladimir Zarubin, where participants created bead crafts and shared stories across generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like I gained real experience,\u201d says Kristen Wang \u02bc29, who worked on the community cookbook initiative and cooking contest project, \u201cnot just about cross-cultural engagement and teaching, but also about planning, teamwork, and being part of a community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

von Schmidt-Pauli says the feedback students received was \u201cterrific,\u201d with community members expressing encouragement and continuous support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the students were very anxious going in because of the number of people, and because it was a public-facing event\u2014that was another skill they really had to work on,\u201d von Schmidt-Pauli says. \u201cI think we get to work on that less and less because of our increasingly digital world\u2014but so much of this is about communicating in real time with real people, then adjusting on the spot.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact was multifold. While the projects allowed students to develop skills like teamwork, communication, project design, relationship building, and thoughtful community engagement, von Schmidt-Pauli also emphasizes the importance of the work beyond personal and academic growth. She points to Liv Whitmore \u02bc26 who, inspired by a class on addiction, researched and compiled resources for people with substance use disorder to create a brochure that she translated into Russian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis resource did not exist in Russian at all before this,\u201d von Schmidt-Pauli says. \u201cLiv went into the community to understand the stigmas that exist there, discussed it with them, and got their feedback. Now it is newly updated and will serve the Russian-speaking community for years to come.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community cookbook initiative, launched with a cooking contest during the event, proved so popular that von Schmidt-Pauli says \u201cIt\u2019s going to become a tradition\u201d\u2014next year\u2019s New Year\u2019s gathering will feature a second one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis class taught me that coordinating a community is a real skill,\u201d says Daniel Wiltse \u02bc27, who worked on the interactive art and storytelling station project. \u201cCommunity programming relies on creating something that is both enjoyable and meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Given the success of the course for both students and community, von Schmidt-Pauli is looking forward to teaching it again this upcoming semester, with hopes for an even larger class. \u201cI hope we can do even more this semester to have an even deeper impact on the community,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the small class size was uniquely meaningful for von Schmidt-Pauli\u2014it gave students the chance to form their own tight-knit group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really special to build a community like this inside Macalester\u2014students across class years supporting each other, getting to know one another, and working on these projects together,\u201d she says.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Community, Identity, and Engagement course students and Professor Tamara von Schmidt-Pauli at the American Russian Center. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":33285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,26],"tags":[67,28],"class_list":["post-33257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-community-engagement","tag-educational-studies","tag-russian-studies","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":[8],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33257"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33289,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33257\/revisions\/33289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}