Inna Fenina, an educator who serves others

One of the “regulars” in ELI’s summer program is Russian educator Inna Fenina, whose experience in the United States and at the University of Delaware has led her to touch the lives of many others.

A Russian educator Inna Fenina (center) with her high school students at the memorial to John Lennon in Central Park

In 1988, as a school teacher and recipient of the Excellence in Teaching English and American Studies Award, Fenina came to the University of Delaware from Ufa, Russia, to attend professional development seminars and to get an “up close and personal experience” of meeting Americans.

The program, funded by the United States Information Agency and administered by the American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study, lasted six weeks. But its impact on Inna has continued to this day.

“It is hardly possible to overestimate the importance of that experience,” said Inna. “I had a brilliant opportunity to learn and develop myself and a chance to exchange my professional and personal experience with my peers––people I met through the program."

After returning to Russia, Inna applied the lessons from her training in the United States, developing activities that got her students involved in the community. She also created an organization which helps the disabled, orphans and mothers who lost their sons in Chechnya.

In 1999, wanting her students to have the same opportunity to study in the United States, Inna chose a small group of her best students to come to ELI for a four-week program. Eight years later, Inna is still bringing Russian high school students to ELI’s summer program, including 10 last August.

In 2002, Fenina won an award for her charity work. She continues to pass her own lessons forward to her students, teaching them how to better serve others.