What is the Alfa Fellowship and How Did I Get Involved?

The Alfa Fellowship is a professional-level fellowship designed to give emerging thought leaders in the US experience in the realities of post-Soviet Russia. The fellowship is sponsored by Alfa Bank, Russia's most progressive privately-held financial institution. A unique aspect of the program is that it is available to professionals in any field - make a strong case for your vision, and they'll consider your application! The program is administered by CDS, and you can read more about the goals and requirements at the link on the bottom of the page.

So in a nutshell - my qualifications: Undergrad degree in Russian Studies and Economics. Lived in Kaliningrad, Russia for a year teaching English and Economics at the Baltic State Academy. Worked in NYC for a year at the largest exporter of frozen chicken to Russia. Went into the stock market, and spent 7.5 years as an equity analyst in domestic equities. Currently enrolled at NYU in the MBA program.

I first heard about the fellowship in the Economist at the end of 2004. The requirements seemed pretty tight, but enough of my background matched up well enough to warrant a stab at applying. I also had some strong encouragement!

So, my essay detailed my ongoing involvement in Russian Studies since my undergrad days, and tracked my professional development. The key part was why I wanted the Fellowship so much: the opportunity to reconnect my interests in Russia with my professional capabilities in finance. I really believe that closer links between our economy and Russia can positively remodel global finance and trade. I also submitted a sample in Russian that bemoaned the poor job the media was doing in educating the American people about life in the post-Soviet era.

On the strength of that, I was invited to interview in February. The process consisted of a group meal, and then a panel interview. The selection committee was an impressive collection of public and private sector leaders - The Director of the Lauder Program at Wharton, a Director of the Woodrow Wilson Institute, an Alfa Bank executive, the program administration director for CDS and its corresponding Russian partner, etc. There was also a spoken Russian evaluation with an instructor affiliated with Columbia University.

The other interviewees were impressive, and despite my belief that I did a good job on the interview, I decided not to be too hopeful. I suppose I felt honored just by getting that far in the process.

A few weeks later, I got the letter! By virtue of my expectations and thought process, I then had to decide at that point whether I wanted to spend the next year committed to the idea of preparing for, and then living in, Moscow. To be honest, it didn't take that long to decide. Getting the letter tapped that enthusiasm that the original ad in the Economist had evoked. The prospect was just too exciting to even hesitate.

So I'm in. Now what? It means studying Russian 3 times a week with a tutor. Moving to Moscow in July for 3 months of language training. Researching and proposing a professional assignment in finance in Russia. And living in Moscow until April 2006. That's going to take some effort - but I couldn't be more excited!