These are brief comments and advices from BRS parents:

Irina Z.

It's very important for me that my son can read and write in Russian and we really appreciate the Russian language and literature classes at Berkeley Russian School.

Vladislav C.

When our daughter was little she spoke only Russian at home but when she started going to school she quickly switched to English. It happened so fast. So it is really important for her to come to BRS and speak Russian with other kids.

Anna V.

It's hard to imagine our life without this school.

Alexei and Natalie S.

We think that everything that our son learns here helps him in his regular school, and his classmates at school benefit too. Our son has a lot of confidence because of his attendance at Berkeley Russian School and he's more culturally aware, more multi-dimensional. His school, near University Village is full of kids from all over the world. Because he has a stronger understanding of his own cultural traditions, he has a greater appreciation of their cultures.

Nadia T.

Our daughter, who is five, loves just coming to Berkeley Russian School, and she's made a lot of Russian friends. We think this is really important for her, and for her self confidence too. She knows that school is on Wednesdays and Saturdays and she counts the days.

Sveta L.

It is really important for our family to share Russian traditions with other families.

Larisa K.

So many immigrant children who attend schools in America lose their language completely and I think it's very important for children to maintain a sense of their culture and identity, including their language.

Yuri Slezkine,
Director Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies

The Berkeley Russian School plays an important social role for new immigrant families to the East Bay as one of the only East Bay Russian institutions that is not religiously affiliated.

Tatyana Y.

We have children in the school who really love acting, even little ones get really into their role. Their eyes just light up, and they just can't wait to do it. It's so great to see that excitement and potential.

Gennady Mikityansky, BRS drama teacher

I've been involved with the Berkeley Russian school on and off for the last 8 years and really enjoy the challenge of working with the older children, developing a plot and a script with them. I make them work very hard and our productions are consistently at a high standard, something which both the children and their parents are very proud of.

Maria P.

The Berkeley Russian School was the first Russian community we met here and through the school we made many connections and friends.

Irina Valioulina, BRS Russian language and literature teacher and parent

My daughter Anya, who is now 15, has been attending since she was 5 years old. She has grown up in this school and it has been a very important part of her education.

Olga Volodina, BRS chess teacher and parent

The festivals help to keep the traditions alive and give the children a chance to know their parents' national heritage.

Eugenia Malinnikova & Yurii Lyubarskii
University of California at Berkeley

This year our academic life brought us to UC Berkeley. Planning our move we were very pleased to find information about Berkeley Russian School on the internet. We speak Russian at home but our daughters, which are now 6 and 9 years old, have never lived in Russia. Thus it is a challenge to keep the development of their Russian language on the age appropriate level. In Berkeley we were inspired by examples of former BRS students, teens that were born in the States and speak perfect Russian; now they come to the school to help teachers with younger children.

Our girls enjoyed the school from the very first day; the youngest is in love with music and dance practice, and the eldest is excited about math, art, and chess lessons. Both of them say that Russian language classes are the high point of their day in BRS. At home they read Russian books, memorize poems, do math assignments, and show us their new dances.

Now Russian language for our girls became not only their "home language" but the language of the great community of teachers, children, and parents of the school. We are grateful to the dedicated and highly professional stuff of BRS and its director Yelena Glikman for creating this remarkable environment for Russian speaking children.

Vera Serganova
Professor of Mathematics
University of California at Berkeley

My daughter Marina attends Berkeley Russian School from the age of five. Now she is 15, and she still goes every week. Marina was born in the US and visited Russia for the first time when she was nine. Even still, her Russian is so fluent that even in Moscow nobody could guess that she grew up in America! She reads Russian books, watches Russian movies, and what is the most surprising - she can spell almost without mistakes. I don't think that we could achieve all this without Berkeley Russian school. Marina is happy and successful in American high school, and in my opinion, her Russian background strengthens both her academic and social skills. While it requires some effort to raise a child bilingual, it is well worth it. Berkeley Russian School provides an excellent atmosphere for a bilingual child, and it makes a child proud of Russian roots. The teachers at Berkeley Russian School do an excellent job. I am very grateful to Marina's Russian teacher Irina Valioulina who managed to make even Russian grammar seem interesting. I admire the director Yelena Glikman for her dedication and constant effort.

Dmitry Budker
Professor of Physics
University of California at Berkeley

We have three children, ages 14, 8, and 4. Our oldest son has attended the Berkeley Russian School for 7 years and the two younger children are currently studying there. It is largely due to the heroic efforts of the teachers, and particularly of the School's organizer, director and "soul", Yelena Glikman, that all of our children are quite fluent in Russian. They also maintain a strong connection to the extremely rich Russian cultural heritage - not just language and literature, but also history, music, fine arts, and theater. All of these are integral parts of the Russian School Experience.

The Berkeley Russian School is growing with our children. I am grateful for it being an important part of our lives.

Yulia Golubovskaya
author of this Web site

If you are looking for joining a Russian community you won't find a better place than BRS. Born from home-style education the School still keeps a very high ratio of parents-teachers and works as a small and friendly Russian club. BRS follows many Russian traditions concerning life style and education. Children learn poems, play word games, listen to classical music and perform a lot. They get assignments in Russian, math and music, parents are expected to help doing these assignments because they are really challenging. There is another nice detail about the school - hot meals for children - a bowl of Russian soup made by some of the parents and served before classes.

Ivan Kuzmenko
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

When moving from Israel, where we spent almost 8 years, to America we were quite concerned and worried about what is going to happen to our daughter whose two native languages (Russian and Hebrew) that we thought to maintain. Although we speak Russian at home it is certainly insufficient as it comes to reading, writing, rich vocabulary etc. In Israel the situation was easier in this respect. Due to a big Russian community many Russian after-schools and even day-schools became available. But what is going to happen here?

Fortunately, after coming to California and settling on a verge of Berkeley we managed to find solutions to both of our language concerns - Berkeley Russian School as it comes to Russian and Tehiyah day school for Hebrew. This sounds almost miraculous, considering how few places in America provide such opportunities. Berkeley Russian School headed by Yelena Glikman is a fine choice for Russian kids living in the area. But the school is not just helping to maintain the native language. The impact is much beyond that. Various lessons including art, geography, mathematics, plays in Russian and just communication provide integrity of Russian education in the way it should be. To get some impression about the school and its atmosphere we would recommend to visit one of the concerts where student present Russian poetry, songs and plays - the output is quite remarkable. And what also not to be omitted - our daughter Dina is very happy to go to the school spending time with teachers and other Russian kids - this place really keeps her in a good mood!

Igor & Helen

The Berkeley Russian School is a wonderful resource for families in the Bay area. The teachers provide dedicated, skilled instruction in art, drama, music and language which each semester culminates in a performance by the students. Our son has attended since he was 3, and now at age 7 is fluent in both written and spoken Russian even though he has never been to Russia and only has 1 Russian speaking parent. Best of all-- he has a wonderful group of friends from the school with whom he speaks and plays in Russian