The Russian Club is an exciting place for anybody to get together, snack on Russian foods, and to learn about the culture of Russia! Senior Benjamin Galison is the bright and awesome club leader who started Russian Club 2018-2019 in hopes of educating the students of Vista Ridge about his culture.

In each Russian Club meeting, anybody who’s interested may show up at the Lecture Halls on Thursdays during Rangertime to learn simple phrases and words in Russian, taught by Benjamin Galison himself. Eat authentic Russian cake and expand your horizons to the interesting culture of Russia.

What is the Russian club?

“The Russian club is one of the biggest clubs here at Vista Ridge High School  and it all started when came here in August of last year.”

Why make a Russian club?

“I noticed that I was one of the few Russian speaking students on campus. And so I thought what a great idea  to organize people to come together and for me to inform them about the Russian language . about the club, and I wanted to make it so that it wasn’t a class or something boring that people wouldn’t attend. I wanted to add a twist in it and make it fun, so that people would genuinely come to the club, learning about Russian history and culture. Because I believe that there’s a lot of valuable things that can be taken away from the history of that country and their people.”

What do you do in Russian club?

“I believe that there a lot of stereotypes and myths about Russians and I wanted to help diminish those and try to bring the true reality to people. My parents are from the Soviet Union and I kind of have the first hand of source as to where  I can get my information from  and how I can tell people stories. It’s also a great place to come in and meet people with somewhat similar mindsets as you because we have over 80 people who attend meetings, and that number is only going  to increase. It’s a great place to meet new people and we have authentic Russian food that is prepared by my family and we also bring all sorts of other snacks.”

Why join?

“If interested in joining the Russian club, and of course, learning some basics of the language, it is definitely a great place to start and learn about Russian history and culture.”

How do I join?

“To join Russian Club  we have a remind system that we use. If you message address 81010 and text @russclub you will be able to receive all the notifications  that I send out personally. We only meet about once a month so people always know when the club will meet. We have meetings during ranger time on Thursdays, so it really is not a huge commitment. It’s very casual and is very fun.”