BAKER• ACADEMIC
INTERESTS:
FRENCH, INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
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Academic Schedule:
Introduction to French Literature II • Images of Contemporary
France • Introduction
to Spanish Language and Culture • Introduction to Russian
Language and Culture
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Adaba—who was born in Houston, grew up in
Kenya, has visited Singapore, recently learned Latin ballroom
dancing, and speaks English, French, and Swahili—is accustomed
to switching gears. For her, constant change and movement are
the spice of life. In addition to her part-time job at the Jesse
H. Jones Graduate School of Management and duties on the Baker
College socials committee, this year the multilingual student
is tackling Russian.
Though Adaba has a laid-back and carefree personality, don’t
be fooled into thinking she isn’t serious about her studies.
She’s the type of student who gets a little miffed if a
professor forgets to give a “promised” quiz. “It’s
not like I’m one of those really annoying whiz kids,” she
quips. “I whine sometimes about having so many quizzes.
But it bothers me when I spend my evenings studying for something
and we end up not having it.”
A lack of quizzes is not a complaint she has about her Russian
class, however. “We had a quiz in Russian on a Monday,” she
exclaims, “talk about merciless.” She spends most
of her lunch hour “cramming Russian vocabulary with my
friend and classmate, Quinton.” The cramming pays off.
Adaba admits that this, her most difficult class so far, is also
her favorite: “I find that my grades in that class are
awesome. I never knew I would do so well, considering that it’s
a different alphabet and incredibly hard to read. I think the
fact that it’s really challenging and I’m still doing
relatively well makes me feel great.”
Adaba’s professor, Natalya Stepanova, understands the difficulty
that the Russian language presents and explains why Adaba is
up to the task. “I assume the reason most of my students
take Russian is because they are all very open-minded and most
of them already speak at least one foreign language. Adaba is
a perfect example of that, being so multicultural and multilingual.
Besides teaching my students the Russian grammar, I am delighted
to be able to expose them to my culture, and students like Adaba
are extremely receptive to it.”
Adaba doesn’t seem to be experiencing the dreaded sophomore
slump. She’s proud of the fact that her grades are “miraculously
better” than last year’s. And luckily, she’s
been able to find a bit of downtime this semester. One recent
Friday night, she headed down to the Baker Blues Party at 11:30
and “danced until my legs could not hold me up any longer.” She
later found her way back to her room and “crawled into
bed some minutes after 3:00 a.m. and let my body just relax.”
Reflecting on the evening, she adds, “I love weekends.”
