Aidan Houston

Aidan Houston: The Reporter in Riga

Russian student, Aidan Houston, shares his experience of interning for a news network in Riga, Latvia

For Aidan Houston, summer took on a cool spell when he headed over to the Baltics for an internship with Baltnews, a Russian-language news network based in Riga, Latvia. Houston is a junior majoring in European Studies and Russian, and he developed an enthusiasm for the Russian language after serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine.

These Russian interests found their niche in the Riga internship as Houston mingled with Russian-speaking Latvians, attended press conferences and events, and worked on articles with his Baltnews superior, Andrei Tatarchuk. He also translated interviews and quotes from English to Russian and vice versa. Houston explained, “Andrei and I worked on the articles together. The first day Andrei gave me this old little phone, and he would call me when he wanted me to come to an event. One time the Canadian Prime Minister was at a Press Conference and Andrei called me up, so I got to meet Justin Trudeau [the Prime Minister] and ask him a question. That was definitely the coolest day of my internship.”

While Houston was courting with world leaders and dignitaries, he also found time to enjoy simply living in Latvia. “What I really came to appreciate was Latvian culture,” Houston acknowledged, “which was so different than anything I had ever experienced before. It was really cool to see this place that had been such contested ground during the time of the Soviet Union and to understand why there had been this dissonance; I realized where and why these cultures conflicted.”

With a taste of cultural diversity and a penchant for Russian, Houston hopes to eventually work with Russian speakers in the realm of international development. “Usually when people think of development, they think of Africa or India, “ Houston remarked, “My hope would be to get into Eastern European development, such as in former Soviet states, especially those not in the E.U. I definitely want Russian to be part of my career.”