THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130262
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Within an hour of her internship, Masha Rodionova was designing and laying out the company's sales flier.
She worked in every phase of operation, including receiving, shipping, purchasing and accounting.
But there was one thing that puzzled the young Siberian college student in her two-week stint with Evans Electric.
``What does yucky mean?'' Rodionova asked Dan Evans, president of the company that sells appliance parts and heating and cooling equipment.
The word had come up in an office discussion of vegetables.
``Masha's English was very good,'' said Evans, ``but we did have to be careful with the use of slang because she would stop us and say, `I don't understand what you're saying.' ''
Rodionova, who is working toward a bachelor's degree in business and management, arrived in America in early July as part of a joint program between the University of Maryland and Irkutsk State University in eastern Siberia.
``We study in Russia. American professors come to Russia and teach us there, and here we came for internship,'' said Rodionova, who left Portsmouth July 31 to spend a week at the University of Maryland, then two weeks visiting friends in North Carolina.
The 21-year-old will return to her homeland in late August, in time to complete her final year at the Russian university.
``Then I will start work,'' she said. ``We should pay in order to study . . university. I should work five years for my sponsor, the university where I study.''
Rodionova was one of 20 Russian college students who came to the United States to see firsthand how American businesses operate.
``I've learned all of the things about Evans Electric,'' said Rodionova. ``I studied techniques of management, how the company operates.
``I learned about computer systems, how they receive orders, how they deal with their customers - many, many, many things.''
Evans Electric was asked to be a participant by the program's coordinator, a salesman who is working on his master's in international marketing at the University of Maryland.
Rodionova, who will receive her business degree from the University of Maryland in September, was the only intern to venture to Virginia. The others stayed on the college campus and worked in the College Park area of Maryland.
``In fact, the one who was actually supposed to come here chickened out at the last moment because he was afraid of being away from his fellow countrymen and not being able to speak Russian to anyone,'' said Evans, who hosted Rodionova in his own home.
``Masha was brave and came on her own.''
This was Rodionova's second trip to America. Last year, she spent two weeks in Washington.
``But now I think I understand more about America, American culture and how people live here,'' she said.
Rodionova would like to return soon, ``because I think there are a lot of interesting things which I'd like to learn here.''
Evans called Rodionova a ``fantastic employee.''
``She laid out our sales flier for the month of August,'' said Evans. ``I put her in front of the computer and showed her how it worked. I left for an hour and came back and it was done. And this was the first time she had ever worked in Pagemaker (computer software). She did a fantastic job.''
Outside of work, Rodionova accompanied Evans to the Tidewater Builders Association summer picnic, the Chamber of Commerce Seafood Outing and a Kiwanis Club meeting at which former Congressman G. William Whitehurst spoke.
``I tried to show her how in America we network because she's looking for ways to do business in Russia,'' said Evans. ``And that's something I don't think they do very well is network.''
Rodionova was intrigued by a meeting she and Evans attended on the revitalization of the Effingham Street corridor, part of the Gindroz 2005 plan.
As the two were leaving, she commented, ``This is very unusual. In my country, one person would make this decision and they would not ask anyone what they thought.''
``She was amazed,'' said Evans.
After attending a press conference on Medicare, Rodionova learned something else.
``She was surprised that anyone in America would want socialized medicine,'' said Evans. ``She said with the socialized medicine that they have in Russia, she would die before she'd go to a hospital.''
Rodionova shared with Evans stories about her country that he found curious, too.
``She told me of her uncle who has a lumber company and how he has to pay off police and mafia or his trucks end up missing,'' said Evans. ``So they have problems we had in the 1930s and 1940s that need to be addressed.''
Rodionova also told Evans of drastic changes in her country in just the last three years.
``When her sister was in high school, the only history they studied was the history of the Communist Party, back to 1918,'' said Evans.
``Three years later, when she was in high school, they studied all of Russian history. A big difference there.''
In addition to praising her work skills, Evans was also impressed with Rodionova's knowledge of American literature.
``I was talking to her about Upton Sinclair's book `The Jungle,' and I said something about it being written in the 1900s,'' said Evans.
Rodionova blurted out, ``1906.''
Evans asked incredulously, ``So you've read that book?''
She had. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JIM WALKER
Masha Rodionova, a student at Irkutsk State University in eastern
Siberia, has been working as an intern at Evans Electric.
by CNB