Rubinina Eugenia is our April 2004 Student of the Month She came first at the University of San Diego Scholarship Competition.

Our choice of this month's student is Evgeniya Rubinina, the 2004 absolute winner of the University of San Diego's Institute of International and Comparative Law Scholarship Program in Russia. USD has been running this prestigious and oldest travel study program in the world for more than 30 years. In agreement with the USD Institute, Pericles organizes the competition for Russian law students and young practicing lawyers, whereby the winners are awarded a fellowship to attend the Institute's courses in Barcelona, Dublin, Florence, London, Mexico City, Oxford, Paris and Moscow, Russia.

Evgeniya will be attending courses in Oxford this summer. Our decision to choose her was based not solely on her quite remarkable USD test results, but also on her career achievements, which clearly demonstrate the ambitions and host of talents she harbors.

The references from her professors, supervisors and the personal impressions she makes point to the excellence in professional and academic performance of Ms. Rubina, who is graduating from MGIMO with a GPA of 5.0/5.0.

The fact that she participated twice in the Philip Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, taking the 1st place oralist award in 2003 and 2nd place oralist in 2004 and becoming Russian national champion as part of MGIMO team in 2004, as well as 34th oralist out of 376 oralists from all over the globe at the Jessup International Rounds in Washington, DC, in 2004, characterizes her as a talented professional with strong litigation skills in the area of international trade and international arbitration law.

Evgeniya describes herself as an "inquisitive person, [always] curious to learn something new about different areas of the law. This is why, she says, she has interned with numerous organizations, such as the Legal Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Federation Council, the Arbitration Court of Moscow, and the ILF Gide Loyrette Nouel. "When I read something in a law textbook, I always want to know how it is practiced in real life, and I am one of the lucky few [to be able to do that]," she adds.

Ms. Rubinina is an avid traveler, in her spare time, who easily blends in an international crowd. She says she has visited "all kinds of different places, such as singapore and Croatia."

She wants to focus her future career plans on international commercial arbitration, because, in her opinion, "it is an exciting career path sought by a lot of young lawyers." To enhance her chances of joining a reputed ILF, she would like to continue her education and get an LLM degree abroad.

Her career path and professional achievements at the moment are certainly solid ground to believe in her eventual success as a prominent international lawyer.

As for us at Pericles, there is no doubt that this remarkable young woman is on track towards reaching these high goals.