My name is Polina, and I am a junior at the University of Central Florida majoring in history. I am originally from Kazan - a multicultural city in Russia that is believed to be founded more than a thousand years ago and located about 500 miles east from Moscow. Seven years ago, I relocated to the US, first, to Washington D.C. and then, to Ft. Lauderdale where I currently live. My husband is from Puerto Rico, so we frequently visit San Juan and call it our second home. We have a senior Airedale Terrier, who brightens our days, but only when it pleases him to interact with us. In addition to history, visual arts and architecture are another passion of mine, and if finances and time permit, I love traveling to see in person the places and objects I learn about as well as to discover different cultures, their traditions, and heritage.
A little over a year ago, I graduated from the Eastern Florida State College with an Associate of Arts degree and transferred to UCF immediately after that, but originally, I used to study civil engineering in university in Moscow. However, because American and Russian bureaucratic processes in higher education differ, after my relocation, I needed to start my degree from scratch, which gave me a chance to reconsider my future career accordingly with what my true passion was. I realized that I would be very happy if I could dedicate myself to encouraging and facilitating education in history as I firmly believe that a better understanding of our past promotes empathy and compassion to one another in the present. Although I have not selected my desired area of specialization yet, I am leaning toward twentieth-century Europe’s history, where I can perhaps make use of my Russian fluency and Spanish proficiency.
This summer I will be assisting Dr. Amanda Snyder with an educational tool she is building - the History Lab. I have previously completed two upper-level courses with Dr. Snyder, both of which were challenging but extremely productive and rewarding for me and during both of which I have used History Lab’s resources extensively, so I felt honored when Dr. Snyder reached out to me about this internship. I was especially excited to get a chance to assist Dr. Snyder with the History Lab’s development because this resource helped me greatly in the beginning of my academic journey at UCF and I continue revisiting it. I have also received a lot of help from the History Lab’s tutors, who helped me to improve my papers and brought to my attention the specific elements of my writing that needed improvement. In other words, I am very excited to give back and help other students to succeed.
Having said this, I believe that this internship will also provide me with new knowledge and skills in effective information delivery, communication, listening, as well as many other personal skills necessary to become a productive and respectful educator. Moreover, I often find that by changing the perspective and helping others to perfect the material, one gets a chance to interact with it in an unexpected way, so the instructor almost always learns something new too. Being a fully online student residing away from the university campus, I particularly appreciated this opportunity, as it gave me a chance to intern remotely. The first week of my internship coincides with the first week of a new semester at UCF, so I have not yet met with Dr. Snyder or my internship advisor Dr. Barbara Gannon, but I look forward to what the next week will bring!