How UGA’s Russian Flagship Program produces some of the university’s brightest scholars and why the rigor is exactly what draws them to it.
Stanley Dierkes looks out from the Vardzia cave monastery on Erusheti Mountain in southern Georgia.
Stanley Dierkes couldn’t stop saying “awesome.”
Before him, a breathtaking view of lush yet jagged mountains rising above the Mtkvari River. Towering behind him, the ruins of a cave complex carved into a cliffside some 800 years ago.
“The fact that they were able to build all of this without modern technology, I think that’s super awesome,” Dierkes says. “I’m just in awe of this place.”