Guests are served first at events held by Trinity’s Slavic Language Association. Tea, sweet treats — think Slavic Little Debbie — and the latest slang translated into Russian filled the room at the recent Tea Time held by the newly reinstated club.
SLA existed before this semester, but fizzled out with time. A group of friends and fellow language enthusiasts decided to revive it after meeting each other through international student events. Now, the club hosts Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese and Indonesian speakers.
The Russian club at Trinity used to host cooking days and watch films together, and they even had group T-shirts. A few years ago, the club disbanded due to a lack of participation.
Harrison Tinker, senior Russian major, joined the club along with some of his friends. Since he is graduating this semester, he said that he has taken on an informal advisory role instead of an officer position. He assisted with documentation to establish SLA as a formal club with Student Engagement and Development.
“I started Russian my first semester here, and I had always heard, in years past, there used to be a Russian club, but now, in my senior year, to see it finally become revived — it’s been pretty cool,” Tinker said. “I do have high hopes for the continuation of the club.”
Alongside Tinker, SLA has several officers that are fluent in Russian or their respective language. Maria Salnikova, junior international business major and current president of SLA, said that since the friend group had plenty of time, they decided to form the club. Together, they looked at the old SLA Instagram page and found what events the old club used to host.
“Last semester, all of us started hanging out with the Russian language speakers, and we realized that there was a club here before us. We were like, ‘Why not? Let’s do it,’” Salnikova said.
After winter break, SED approved the club’s documentation, and SLA held their first club event. The event was open to all current SLA officers, and they planned the rest of the spring semester together while they celebrated the new year. The first public event was Maslenitsa, a Slavic tradition that celebrates the beginning of spring and new life.
Alina Turzhanova, first-year finance major and current treasurer for SLA, will be the president of SLA in Fall. She met Salnikova and other club members at a dinner for international students. According to her, the group thought that they could introduce other students to their cultures. As the treasurer, Turzhanova handles the club’s budget.
“It’s been going well. We’re new, so it was just one time that I went to the finance meeting with SGA. But, I now know how it runs, and I know that, as president, I’m going to help my treasurer in the next semester as well,” Turzhanova said.
Salnikova said that she hopes the club’s event schedule is more consistent in the future. Next semester, she’s studying abroad, but she said that she’s looking forward to next spring, when she and the rest of the officers can plan more events for the club.
“I transferred here from San Antonio College. I was very curious to find my community, and I know that Trinity is well-known for diversity. I was like, ‘Maybe I can find somebody who also speaks my language’, because in San Antonio College, I didn’t have that,” Salnikova said. “I really wanted to find those people that feel like home to me.”
The main event that SLA hosts is called Tea Time. It’s once every other week, on Monday nights, in the Tehuacana Room on the second floor of Coates Student Center. The club meets to catch up over tea and various Slavic snacks. Often, they speak and practice each other’s languages, and they are always learning new words and sayings.
“It’s not even about just the people who want to learn it. It’s just to experience this culture,” Turzhanova said. “I think people might want to be interested for that.”
