SLI Russian & Eastern European Summer Language Institute

I attended the Summer Language Institute hosted by the University of Pittsburgh for three summers in a row (’05, ’06, ’07) and have so many wonderful things to say about it. It’s easily one of my most cherished memories from my college years and things I learned there still help me to this day.
SLI is a great program run by incredibly professional, knowledgeable and fun professors and people. They have their language programs on lock.
When I was a student, Bojan Belic, Rada Drezgic and Ljiljana «Lili» Duraskovic were professors. I see that Professor Belic was still teaching in 2011 and Professor Duraskovic is currently listed as faculty. There are newer people listed as well, but many familiar faces, so I have no doubt the program is just as good as it was when I attended. SLI is serious about Slavic.
I was a student at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, MN, and they put emphasis on providing a well-​rounded education. This means that, regardless of major, students are «required to take a broad-​based liberal arts core curriculum» that may have absolutely nothing to do with their intended field of study. For example, everyone must pass Health & Fitness, Human Diversity, 2 Moral & Philosophical Reasoning, etc. Luckily, my Bachelor of the Arts Degree was in International Studies — History, and many of these mandatory (Social Analysis, Historical Studies and, my favorite, Language & Culture) classes could be applied to both the core requirements and my major.
As an International Studies student, you are required to take 12 credits of a foreign language in addition to the 12 credits needed to fulfill the Language & Culture core. That ends up being 6 classes total, but you have the option to skip some levels if you can pass out of them or prove you’re fluent in a language other than English. I took the test for Spanish and was able to advance to the 3^rd class; however, I personally didn’t feel ready for that and I was no longer interested in Romance languages. I wanted something strong and challenging; thus, I pursued Bosnian.
I initially tried to learn the language on my own with Teach Yourself Croatian, and that quickly came to a halt when I stumbled upon grammatical cases and had no clue how to proceed.
Here is where SLI comes into play.
I discovered you needed to be a sophomore to study abroad, so I found a program I could apply for the following year and started searching for universities that taught Bosnian/​Croatian/​Serbian. University of Pittsburgh was one of the first results and they had a number of scholarships available. I applied and was quickly accepted and ended up only paying a fraction of the fee.
SLI also offers other Slavic and Central European languages with the Russian program being the most popular. Each language has different levels and B/​C/​S is one of the few that offers Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Mastery. The summer programs run 4 – 10 weeks, depending on language, and many offer a 6+4 program, which means 6 weeks at Pitt followed by 4 weeks abroad. They are all different, so check the course description for specifics.
What is similar about each program is that they follow the same basic structure. You meet for grammar in the mornings, break for lunch (usually with your group, though not required), and practice conversation in the afternoons. It pretty much is a full-​time job, especially when you add assignments to the mix. It’s very challenging but so worth it. After six weeks of hard work, you’ve got yourself the equivalent of a semester’s worth of credit.
Beginner B/​C/​S prepared me for studying abroad in 2006. I was the only student in my program who took second year Croatian, and I was able to keep the ball rolling in Intermediate at SLI 2006. Although I used little of the language for an entire year, I returned in 2007, skipped Advanced and went into Mastery. That was quite stressful but also rewarding. It fulfilled all my language requirements and then some. So, by time I was a senior, I had so many extra credits that I could basically take two fun classes (needed at least three) to keep my scholarship at St. Thomas. That’s when I decided to dive into another Slavic language, Russian, and nailed it. I definitely have SLI to thank for that.