Paulina Ukrainets '19 has received a Princeton in Asia Fellowship with the Luang Prabang Film Festival in Laos.

The Luang Prabang Film Festival, a charitable cultural organization, brings together the boldest storytellers and the most influential films in Southeast Asia.

Ukrainets, an English major in the creative writing track from Oxford, United Kingdom, and Moscow, Russia, will work as a festival coordinator for the Luang Prabang Film Festival, whose mission is to celebrate filmmaking and promote cultural exchange in Southeast Asia, while supporting a sustainable local industry and art form.

While an undergraduate at Colorado College, Ukrainets worked as the general manager and online content manager for The Sounds of Colorado College, CC's radio station and music blog. She also was an intern with "Air Check," a program on 91.5 KRCC, Colorado College's NPR-member station. She recently worked as a translator for a Russian documentary film, "The Case," and co-teaches a yoga and meditation class at El Paso County Jail through CC's Prison Project.

Ukrainets applied for the Princeton in Asia fellowship because of her experience growing up in multiple cultures. "I have lived in Russia, the UK and the U.S., and the experience of transitioning between those cultures has given me the unique privilege of observing cultural expectations from the perspective of an outsider," she says.

"The arts have always been the most effective point of access to understanding any culture, since they engage both emotional and rational modes of thinking. Princeton in Asia's media placements appealed exactly to this sentiment; they seemed like a great way to challenge any assumptions I might have absorbed over my college career, and to get to use my skills and privilege to - hopefully - help elevate underrepresented voices in South East Asia's film and media landscape."