Bellaire earned more medals than any other school in the nation in a recent Russian Essay Competition, with seven gold medals, 17 silvers, 25 bronzes and 42 honorable mentions. Gold medal essays at certain advanced levels have been forwarded for judging at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow.
For 28 years, the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) has sponsored the national Russian Essay Contest for pre-college students. Students from middle and high school Russian programs register through their teachers to write essays in mid-November.
Gold medal winners were Christina Bey, Julia Chernis, Elizabeth Didyk, Joseph Hang, Nikita Makarov, Valery Pokidalyo, and Monica Raptis. Silver medalists were Shenequa Alpough, James Chapman, Katherine Gold, Kathryn Jansa, Jacquelynn Liedtke, Erica Lynn, Lauren Lusby, Kseniya Nagornova, Emily Pierson, Stephanie Rohrbach, Aidana Omarbekova, Sarah Orsak, David Sandler, Samantha Solis, Gregory Tishkevich, Louis Weiss, and Tatiana Yatsenko.
