The Richard Reiff Award for Campus Internationalization, given annually by the Office of Global Engagement, recognizes full-time faculty members who have made exceptional contributions to global education at the University of Georgia.
Victoria Hasko
Associate Professor
Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies
Department of Linguistics
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Victoria Hasko knows that transformative learning extends well beyond the classroom.
“Throughout my tenure, I have worked to expand access to exceptional global learning opportunities for UGA students through nationally recognized curricular innovation, high academic rigor and a sustained commitment to reducing financial barriers,” she said.
Hasko has served as the director of UGA’s Russian Flagship Program since fall 2018. To date, she has secured more than $7 million in federal funding for global educational initiatives from multiple agencies.
The Language Flagship is a national initiative designed to prepare future global professionals with advanced language proficiency and deep global expertise. Hasko has led the development of a four-year Russian Flagship curriculum that integrates intensive language study with disciplinary engagement across the university and has served students from more than 30 distinct majors. These collaborations inspire students from diverse majors to pursue advanced scholarship and careers with international impact across public and private sectors, with a particular focus on national security and public service.
Under Hasko’s leadership, the Russian Flagship program currently supports more than 90 undergraduates currently pursuing professional-level proficiency in Russian. Alumni of the Russian Flagship Program include two recent Rhodes Scholars, a 2025 Truman Scholar and annual cohorts of Boren, Fulbright and other prestigious awards.
Hasko helped design and secure approval for the Double Dawgs pathway in Intensive Russian and International Policy, which combines graduate study, study abroad and internships in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Additionally, Hasko designed, implemented and directed two federally supported summer study abroad programs: “Immersion in the Russian Languages, Cultures, and Communities in the Baltics,” which offers advanced coursework and internships, and an ROTC-serving “Project Global Officer in Russian Studies.”
“This was a fantastic program. It was academically tight, well-run and managed, had high-quality host families and great opportunities and excursions all across the board. When I think about where my Russian was before and after the program, the progress I see is immense,” one student wrote.