New College Student Heads to Russia As Kremlin Fellow

A New College of Florida student will be headed to Russia for a prestgious fellowship this month.

student Michael Long was named a 2012 Kremlin Fellow, one of only 15 student leaders selected from colleges and universities nationwide, including Harvard. Long will represent the Florida Student Association (FSA) and New College when he meets with Russian government officials, entrepreneurs and student leaders in Moscow from May 25 to June 3, 2012.

Long, a Sarasota native and graduate of Lakewood Ranch High School in Bradenton, was the youngest student elected to chair the FSA for a one-year term, which ends in May 2012. Long is an environmental studies major currently serving a second term as president of the New College Student Alliance. 

“Meeting with the student body presidents from nearly every university in the country was enlightening and thought provoking. We live in a global economy, and technology has allowed us to facilitate relationships and partnerships between students as far apart as Seattle and Miami and New York City and Moscow,” Long says. “Now, as part of the Kremlin Fellowship program, I will be working with student leaders in Russia. I believe that conferences like this and the National Campus Leadership Summit will undoubtedly help foster positive global relations.” 

As FSA chairman, Long was also chosen to serve on the National Campus Leadership Council's (NCLC) Executive Committee, which is composed of 10 student government presidents from throughout the country and serves as an independent advisory council to the White House.

In April, he participated in the NCLC White House Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., where he met with White House officials, heard speakers from governmental and nonprofit organizations, led a breakout session on campus sustainability and met briefly with President Barack Obama. 

The Kremlin Fellows Program is an exchange program sponsored by Russia’s Federal Agency on Youth Affairs and administered by The Center for American-Russian Engagement of Emerging Leaders.

The program was founded in 2010 to introduce the next generation of American leadership to the cultural and historic context in which Russian people and institutions operate as well as to help dismantle stereotypes left behind by the Cold War.