Before coming to Lewis & Clark, Justin knew almost nothing about the Russian language, culture, or history beyond what he had read in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. He decided to study Russian in college almost on a whim, as there was a foreign language requirement and Russian seemed like an interesting option. However, within weeks of his first Russian class, he fell in love with the language and discovered that the culture and history of Russia was even more interesting than he had expected. Unfortunately, Justin was unable to study abroad in Russia during his time at Lewis & Clark, due to switching majors at the end of his sophomore year, but he hopes to visit Russia and its neighboring countries at least once in his life. After graduating, Justin will stay in Portland to work as a software analyst for Huron Consulting, and while he will not immediately be using Russian in his career, he wants to keep up his language skill in his free time.