“The scarlet and the brown run through the fabric of my everyday life,” says Alexey Bulokhov ’03, referring to St. Lawrence’s colors. A speech and theatre (now performance and communication arts) major with a multidisciplinary minor in gender studies and film studies, Alexey was a coordinator of International House and lived in the Artists Guild theme house. He did a University Fellowship summer research project on depictions of homosexuality in film; another fellowship to study the emergence of out/visible gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer culture in Eastern Europe; and a third, from career services, to intern at the Cannes Film Festival in public relations. He also led an LGBT group on campus and had an exhibition in Brush Art Gallery.

But that was in college. What came next, he says, all has had “direct links” to SLU: 

*For two years after college, he worked in fashion photography and public relations in New York City; “my break into this hard-to-break-into field came through contacts and connections I made in Cannes,” he says.

*He next became a grassroots organizer and is now a director of international outreach with Soulforce. “My work happens at the intersection of faith, sexuality/gender identity and social justice,” he says. Alexey focuses on Eastern Europe; he spends two months each year in the region co-organizing or attending events such Russia's first LGBT film festival and a week-long seminar in Italy on intersections of faith, gender and fashion for young adult activists from 15 countries.

“St. Lawrence enabled me to invest myself fully into the areas and issues I was curious about and chart my own course through seemingly unrelated fields,” Alexey says. “Its support, both personal and financial, of my wish to pursue my passions prepared me intellectually and emotionally and equipped me with the skills to realize my dreams.”