Great experience to kickstart undergraduate career

Spending 5 weeks teaching English at a summer camp in Nerekhta ended up solidifying my decision to invest in Russian for the rest of my college career.
At the time, I only had two semesters of Russian language learning under my belt. It was enough to get by, but communication struggles were very common. However, this is the perfect opportunity to pick up the language -- I ended up skipping an entire year of the Russian language sequence at my university once I returned to school in the fall.
My host family was very sweet, caring, and understanding. They were just as happy to have me and learn about me as I was them.
Though the schedule over the 5 weeks was pretty tight, we were lucky enough to be provided with excursions to the major nearby cities over the weekends. Our transport and stays were covered even then.
Both the counselors and young campers were eager to befriend the English-speakers and teach us plenty of Russian words and phrases that you wouldn't learn in a classroom
Overall, it was a great program -- especially for the cost -- and I saw more of Russia than I did on my formal study abroad program in Russia later on.