Two Bowdoin students — Jae Yeon Yoo ’18 and Augustus Gilchrist ’20 — have been recognized by the American Council of Teachers of Russia for essays they wrote on the subject, “An Important Person in My Life/Важный человек в моей жизни.”

This spring, for the first time, more than a dozen Bowdoin students participated in the organizations’s national Russian essay contest, according to Associate Professor of Russian Alyssa Gillespie. From 67 universities and colleges across the country, 1,326 students submitted essays. Three judges in Russia read each essay and ranked them.

Yoo won honorable mention in Level 3, in the “non-heritage learner category,” which includes non-heritage speakers of Russian or any other Slavic language. Gilchrist received a silver medal in Level 4, also in the non-heritage learner category.