Genya Shimkin '08

Genya Shimkin, with help from the Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) program and Bard’s Institute for International Liberal Education, spent a summer at Smolny College, a liberal arts college connected with Bard, in St. Petersburg, Russia, and conducted her TLS project on how Russian youths reduce the risks of HIV infection. “I have a deep-rooted desire to fight the stigma of HIV,” says Shimkin, who served on queer-straight alliances in high school and at Bard. “Russia dealt with this with what I call ‘historical Russian fatalism,’ with no policy at all until it was too late.” Her Senior Project juxtaposed Vladimir Putin’s policies for population growth with his failure to respond to Russia’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Shimkin majored in Russian and Eurasian studies and human rights. Her interest in Russian studies stems from her father’s family, originally from Ukraine. Her great-grandfather, a Menshevik (the group that opposed the Bolsheviks), fell from favor and eventually made his way to the United States, where his newspaper (Novoye Russkoye Slovo, or New Russian Word) became the most widely distributed Russian-language periodical in the country. Shimkin started studying Russian at age 12.

Of her education at Bard, Shimkin says, “This school offers us almost innumerable opportunities. What makes me proudest is that students don’t let those chances go by. With everything I have done here, I have a leg up on anyone.” This is borne out by her extracurricular activities: membership on the Student-Athletic Advisory and Senior Class Committees and experience as a peer health educator (she is interested in graduate study in public health), campus tour guide, residence hall peer counselor, and tennis team captain.