From the Princeton University Home Page
Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award
"Michael Semenov received the Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award, which is awarded each year to the undergraduate who, at the end of junior year, has achieved the highest academic standing for all preceding college work at the University.
Semenov, of San Francisco, attended San Francisco University High School. An A.B. candidate, he is an architecture major pursuing certificates in urban studies and translation and intercultural communication. He is a recipient of the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize and twice received the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.
Semenov is interested in applying the principles of good architecture and urban and environmental planning on a large scale. For his senior thesis in architecture, he is examining how buildings can be designed to be added to incrementally.
This summer he visited Lima, Peru, and Santiago, Chile, to research public housing projects and how buildings could be expanded as families gain resources to build more rooms or stories. Also this summer, he worked for Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, an urban planning and architecture firm in Miami founded by Princeton alumni Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Semenov serves on the School of Architecture Student Advisory Board.
Semenov is also a published translator of Russian poetry. He is writing a thesis for his certificate in translation on the use of the informal/formal distinction tu/vous that exists in many languages, but not English. He is involved in the Princeton University Language Project as a translation speaker series coordinator. He previously studied abroad through Princeton in Beijing.
Throughout his undergraduate career, Semenov has engaged with campus sustainability initiatives, serving as co-president of Greening Princeton, chair of the Greening Dining Committee and member of the GreenLeaders forum. He is on the Princeton Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee.
He is a member of the Chapel Choir and has been involved with Theatre Intime, the Princeton Opera Company, the Nassau Literary Review and the Princeton Birding Club."
