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Find opportunities that are right for you to continue your education outside your home country.
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© 2025 Freedom Degree
Freedom Degree, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. © 2025 | Powered by Strapi
Jan 10, 2025
A powerful example of how studying can help you change your country of residence several times.
– I’ve come to realise that education matters to me — not only because it helps me understand what’s happening in the world and how it works, but also because it gives me better economic opportunities.”
Yevgeny Lapin is originally from Arkhangelsk. Today, he lives in Buenos Aires, is active in community work, runs a business, and writes screenplays in Spanish. Just a few years ago, he was studying at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow and standing for election as an opposition candidate. For him, education became both a way of understanding the world and a tool that helped him at a time of danger.
First Steps — Grammar School and FLEX in the USA
– I went to a grammar school where we studied foreign languages — Latin, French, and English. At school and at music classes, there were also opportunities to learn Finnish and Norwegian. I chose Norwegian at the time.”
In Year 10, Yevgeny travelled to the United States on the FLEX exchange programme — Future Leaders Exchange.
– It’s a one-year programme where you study at a regular American high school and live with a host family. The family provides accommodation and meals.”
After school, I took part in a programme organised by the school district a few times a week… we formed action groups. I wrote a proposal for the education-focused groups to address the ‘achievement gap’ — differences in academic or economic outcomes caused by various social factors.
While studying in the US, Yevgeny also took part in an additional programme run by the school district. It focused on supporting teenagers from socially vulnerable backgrounds or low-income families.
– I was selected through a competitive process. There were students who were the first in their families to finish school or planned to go to university. We had leadership training, went on outdoor trips where we discussed social issues and formed working groups to try and make a difference.
Getting into HSE and an Interest in Urban Studies
– After I came back, I repeated Year 10… I actively took part in academic school competitions because I figured I probably wouldn’t get a top score in the Unified State Exam on my first try. I needed a backup plan.
Yevgeny became a prize-winner in the All-Russian Olympiad of schoolchildren for English and was admitted to HSE (Higher School of Economics), to the Faculty of Humanities, on the Computer and Applied Linguistics programme.
– I had a few options to choose from — I even considered universities in Vladivostok. But I knew that at HSE, you could take a minor for two years. Even in Year 11, when I was applying, I already knew I wanted to study urban studies — and HSE offered a minor in that field.
Your major is your main degree subject — mine was computational linguistics. The minor is additional. Once a week, on Thursdays, for two years, I had four urban studies courses.
The urban studies minor eventually allowed him to apply for a master’s degree in that field. But during his undergraduate studies, he began working in the transport sector.
– After two or three months, I got a job in Moscow — working on street redesign and as a transport analyst. I thought: why keep studying if I’m already working alongside people who’ve completed that master’s degree?
Political Activism and Returning to Arkhangelsk
– While I was studying at HSE, the overall atmosphere at the university and within my faculty was socially engaged. Everyone was informed and actively involved in what was going on.”
Yevgeny served as an election observer during the 2018 presidential election, and later became a member of a local electoral commission in Moscow. In 2021, he ran for a seat in the Arkhangelsk Regional Assembly.
– I had to collect signatures… We made an agreement with a shopping centre to set up a table, posted about it on social media — and the next morning the head of the electoral commission messaged me saying: ‘Why are you stirring things up?’ Then the police turned up… and after that, we had to write ‘official explanations’ — what exactly we were doing there.
At the same time, Yevgeny continued his studies. In 2021, he enrolled in an evening law programme at NArFU — Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk:
– In 2021, I started evening classes at NArFU because I wanted to get a legal education alongside my political activity and general interest in politics and public issues.In the first year, we had some classes online and some in person. But since I left in August to study a different master’s programme, I had to come back in January and July 2022 to sit my exams at NArFU.
After mobilisation was announced, Yevgeny decided not to return:
– Then mobilisation was announced, and I made the decision not to come back, not to continue my studies. All the money I had paid to NArFU — well, it just stayed there somewhere.
Relocation and study abroad
After his election campaign and increasing pressure from the authorities, Yevgeny realised that staying in Russia was becoming more and more dangerous. He made the decision to leave quickly — and once again chose education as his way forward.
– The first programme I joined was a master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation at Yerevan State University — it was funded by the European Union.
I just didn’t want to put too much effort into applying to a university where I’d have to sit exams in a foreign language. I’d already studied in the US and at HSE — my studies were in English. What mattered to me most was being able to enrol quickly and easily without having to take entrance exams.
The programme was entirely in English and lasted for two semesters — the first in Yerevan, the second in Tbilisi. Tuition was free, and the monthly stipend was about $400 — barely enough to get by, but it covered rent, “with a little extra for a few square metres.”
– I spent the first semester in Yerevan, and the second one in Georgia. I wrote my thesis on forced political migrants from Russia: how and why they leave via Georgia, and what challenges they face.
Later, Yevgeny was also accepted to the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, for a master’s programme in Politics and Security in Central Asia. This was another fully funded programme, with accommodation and a stipend, but it had a very intense schedule: 120 credits over one and a half years, including a summer school, research, and an internship in Germany.
The programme was taught in English, with international lecturers and students from different countries. But despite the richness of the experience, he began to feel increasingly exhausted by the constant uncertainty and pressure.
Argentina: A New Country, A New Life
After finishing his studies, Yevgeny decided to move to Argentina to seek asylum. Due to his political activism and affiliations, returning to Russia is no longer an option.
– I thought Argentina was a country where I could apply for asylum and try to get protection from the state. I already knew Spanish — I’d studied it for a year in the US. Now I handle everything here in Spanish.
He continues to work in IT and has also started a socially driven business.
Advice for Those Planning to Leave Their Country for Education
To conclude, Yevgeny shared some advice for future students:
– Develop soft skills, improve your languages, and build your social network. Do as many different things as you can — it all helps.
Even if something doesn’t work out right now or I don’t end up needing it for a while, I still know that the knowledge is there. The connections are there. And I’ll be able to use them in the future.
When it comes to admissions and competitions — organisers often go for those who are already the best. So the main thing is to grow in different directions, become well-rounded.