Congratulations to Kseniya Rubejanksaya, undergraduate winner of the 2012-13 Laurence Short Academic Award for International students!
Rubejanskaya, student in the B.S. in Health Systems Management program in the School of Health and Human Services, has been named the undergraduate winner of the 2012-13 Laurence Short Academic Award for International Students. The honor carries with it a $500 award and inclusion on an engraved plaque in the Office of Graduate and International Admission and Enrollment.
Rubejanskaya was raised in the post-Soviet, largely Muslim-populated country of Uzbekistan and came to UBalt in spring 2011 from the Community College of Baltimore County. She has previously studied at Florida Community College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Rubejanskaya, who is graduating this month, boasts a 3.639 GPA and is an intern at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she is assigned to projects related to Priorities for Children with Autism Spectrum and Other Developmental Disabilities. Rubejanskaya is looking forward to a career in public health.
In the essay on "The Obstacles an International Student Must Overcome to Achieve Academic Success and How I Did So" accompanying her application for the award, Rubejanskaya states:
... All those who make a decision to leave their customary lives behind even for a short period of time and deliberately put themselves in the position of discomfort of having to navigate through an entirely new culture and system are very courageous people. ... Having spent so much time and effort to develop as an individual as well as future professional, it only makes sense that persisting through hard and diligent work is the only option available.
The annual award program is supported by UBalt alumnus Ali Alemi, M.S. '78; his family established the Laurence Short Endowment Fund in 1984 in honor of Laurence Short, former UBalt international student adviser and faculty member in the then-Department of Foreign Languages. Contributions to the endowed fund may be made through the UBalt Foundation.