The Pushkin Summer Institute is an empowering and transformative educational experience for American high school students from underprivileged or minority backgrounds. Underlying the program is a multi-pronged strategy that combines the latest knowledge about best practices in foreign language acquisition with an integrated subject curriculum focused around Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s national poet (“Russia’s Shakespeare”), whose African heritage was instrumental in his sense of identity and in crucial aspects of his life and works. The example of Pushkin has never been used this way with an American student audience, and we believe his life story, his extraordinary ancestry, his supreme ability to turn the adverse circumstances dealt to him by life into creative behavior and a legacy that has touched millions, can be harnessed so as to inspire young people who may have their own challenging circumstances to overcome.
