Grills heading to Russia this summer

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This article was published 22/02/2011 (5577 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Neelin High School Grade 11 student Nathan Grills will be spending part of his summer vacation this year learning the Russian language, thanks to the benevolence of a former Brandon resident and her husband.

Grills is this year’s Brandon recipient of the DS Adventure Scholarship, established in 2008 by former Brandonite Deborah Grant and her husband, Srdjan (Serge) Tanjga.

Each year, the couple provides one student from Brandon and one student from Belgrade, Serbia (where Serge is from) the opportunity to study a foreign language of their choosing in the country where that language is spoken.

Grills says he was simply floored when he got the phone call from the couple earlier this year and discovered he would be spending three weeks this summer learning Russian in St. Petersburg.

"It took a while to sink in," he said. "It was just so amazing."

The scholarship will see Grills travel to Russia in late July and then spend three weeks studying the country’s mother tongue at St. Petersburg State University.

The scholarship covers all of his expenses, including enrichment experiences like museum visits.

"I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the Hermitage (museum)," he said. "The culture in Russia will be really exciting."

In his winning essay submission, Grills spoke about how his high school experience at Neelin has helped him grow into a more open and courageous individual.

"It’s definitely made me a lot more confident," he said of his time at Neelin. "It’s really a supportive community there."

Speaking with the Sun via phone while on vacation in London last week, Deborah and Serge said they believed Grills’ submission perfectly embodied the experience of teenage growth into adulthood.

"He told us how accepting his high school has sort of changed him and made him excel and made him learn more and we just view that as evidence of somebody who can grow and has a courage to change certain things about themselves," Serg explained.

The couple, both successful players in New York’s financial world, have pledged to continue to give the scholarship out to two deserving students each year as long as they are able.

"Because there were many people who were very generous and helped both of us along our respective paths, we want to just provide the same type of opportunities to give a little bit of help to someone who we think very much deserves it and can make a difference to them as they pursue their own series of adventures," Deborah said. "There is no better day than when we call the scholarship recipient. It’s really fun to be able to do that."

"Even just in the two years that we’ve done this, we’ve seen how going away for the summer has influenced the people that we’ve given this to and how it’s helped them grow," Serg added. "It’s just so wonderful to be a part of that."

This year’s Serbian recipient of the DS Adventure Scholarship is Milica Petrovic, who will travel to Boston for her adventure and study English at Tufts University.

More information on the DS Adventure Scholarship can be found at dsadventurescholarship.com.