I am a native Russian speaker, born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine until the age of 5 when I moved to NYC. In my sophomore year of high school, I won the gold medal for the ACTR Olympiada of Spoken Russian held in Columbia Univ., NYC. In my senior year, I won an Honorable Mention in the Random House Inc. Creative Writing Contest for NYC High School Seniors for a short story I submitted.I speak both Russian and English without accents, and am able to read and write proficiently in both. I consider my mastery of both languages as being on the same level.