On August 30 St. Herman Seminary began orientation for the 2011–2012 academic year. Now our students are settling in to the cycle of classes and worship at the seminary, gaining practical ministry experience at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak in the areas of Altar service, singing in the choir, and teaching church school. This year we welcome 7 new students, bringing our community to 15 full-time students, from various regions of Alaska and with varying life experiences. This year we have students from among the Alutiiq, Aleut, Athabascan, Tlingit, and Yup’ik peoples . . . as well as a couple of non-Native students from our Diocese. We also are excited about having 25 children on campus! As we grow together in community we look forward to a new year of training future clergy and laity for “the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12) in Alaska.

We also welcome a new faculty member, Daria Safronova, a doctoral candidate from Ohio State University. A native of Russia, Daria has 8 years of experience in teaching Russian and most recently has served as a graduate research associate at the Hilandar Research Library and Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, which possesses the largest collection of medieval Slavic manuscripts on microform in the world. She will be teaching Slavonic as well as Russian Church History and Literature at the seminary as well as overseeing the care of the Diocesan Archives and the seminary library. In addition, she will be teaching Russian at Kodiak College, our local branch of the University of Alaska system.