Russian fellowship
For two months Voice of America hosted Marya Kovalskaya from Irkutsk, Russia, as a part of a fellowship sponsored by sponsored by the US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange (SEE) at Eurasia Foundation. Kovalskaya is a freelance reporter for the newspaper “Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda” in Irkutsk, She is also a historian in migration, interested in the construction of stereotypes in media and primary culture.
In addition to working alongside journalists at VOA, she honed her interviewing skills, developed additional researching capabilities and practiced working on deadline. She was also able to explore local sources of information. For example she contacted the DC Police Department’s Latino Relations Unit and went on a “ride-along.” This experience was especially interesting to her because of her focus on migration studies.
Ms. Kovalskaya covered the “12th Coordination Meeting on International Migration” at the United Nations, February 20-21, 2014, for the VOA Russian Service. She also travelled to Miami, Florida, for consultations with BBG’s Radio/TV Marti on issues pertaining to her research of the Latin American migrants in the U.S.