Vitaly Vinogradov Student of the Month June 2003 One of 2003 USD Scholarship Winners

Our Student of the Month for June, Vitaly Vinogradov, was an unexpected and happy surprise. We were a bit late selecting this month, as several of our professors and staff had just returned from a trip to St. Petersburg’s anniversary with a group of American students from the University of San Diego summer law study program. One of the winners of our scholarship for the USD program, Vitaly Vinogradov, went along with the group, and helped show all our Americans the wonders of the White Nights. Well, this week when we were all back in Moscow and about to start discussing which student we would select, Vitaly came in to visit and exclaimed “Guess what?! I just graduated first in my class!”

What could we do? Inevitably we selected Vitaly for this great, and very timely, achievement!

Vitaly has just graduated with the degree of Specialist in Civil Law from the Moscow State Linguistic University. This degree took him six years as, besides law, students at the Linguistic University must achieve fluency in two foreign languages (in Vitaly’s case, English and German). After defending his dissertation this week, he found out that he was ranked as the best student in his class of 45 people. Reason for a celebration indeed.

We applaud Vitaly particularly for his commitment and the hard decisions that he was forced to make to achieve this result. Vitaly was working in the law department of Deloitte Touche, but was forced to give up his job this spring in order to ensure that he was prepared for his dissertation and his state exams. It’s always an especially difficult choice for Russian students, in Moscow’s competitive marketplace, to make a decision to put education ahead of career for a time, and Vitaly deserves our commendation for doing so. Given his results, it seems he made the right choice.

Vitaly is currently studying East/West Trade in the Pericles sponsored University of San Diego Russian Institute on International & Comparative Law. He gained a scholarship for this course by winning a competitive written exam administered by Pericles, beating out about 40 other students. After he finishes his summer studies, Vitaly is planning to enter an evening LL.M. program in Moscow. He is currently deciding between Pericles’ American LL.M. program and the German LL.M. program offered by the Institute of State & Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vitaly is also planning to start work again, and is interviewing for employment at some of the top law firms in Moscow.

Congratulations Vitaly, and best of luck in your future education and career! We at Pericles, and your classmates in East/West Trade are all very proud of you.