PSU student model

When Portland State graduate student Alla Chumak first found out that she had been selected out of thousands to film a commercial for Revlon featuring Halle Berry, she could not wait to meet the Academy Award-winning actress.

“When I got there,” Chumak said, “I found out that she had filmed her part the day before.”

Despite the disappointment, Chumak was still thrilled to be filming a commercial for Revlon, a new step in her two-year modeling career.

Chumak, 22, flew to Los Angeles at the end of January, where her agent sent her to various auditions.

Whenever she visits L.A., Chumak said she always does some work for Robinson’s May, a department store affiliate of Meier and Frank, so she knew that the trip would not be a complete waste.

However, a few days before the commercial was set to begin filming, she found out that Revlon wanted to book her as a featured model for their latest lip color.

“I was very excited,” she said.

However, Chumak’s journey has been a long and not always easy one.

She was born in Russia and lived in the region known as Georgia, now an independent country. She lived there until she was nine years old when, in 1989, her family moved to Portland. She graduated from Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Wash.

Chumak received her bachelor’s degree in health sciences from Linfield College last year. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in public administration.

Chumak is also dedicated to music. For seven years, she sang with a Russian church choir in Vancouver. She now studies voice privately and sings with both PSU’s University Choir and opera company.

When she auditioned for the opera production last October, Chumak didn’t think she would make the cut.

“I was competing against all of the other music majors,” she said.

But, to her surprise, she made it and sang parts in both “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tenderland.”

She is performing this term in “Cendrillon” (Cinderella) and “Suzanna.”

Chumak is also excited about the company’s full production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” this spring, in which she is also cast.

While Chumak is the first person in her family to attend college, she is not the first to perform music.

“My whole family is musical,” she said with a smile.

Chumak said that whenever friends come to her family’s house, her father insists that she, her three sisters and her brother go to the piano to sing.

If she could do anything, Chumak said she would love to be able to perform in a Broadway musical in New York.

“I always thought that would be fun,” she said.

Besides school, modeling and singing, Chumak is extremely dedicated to her family and her husband of over three years.

She often goes shopping with her mother and three sisters, and visits her parents’ house at least three times a week.

Her husband, Veniamin, is originally from Siberia.

“I have never in my entire life met anyone sweeter than Ven,” Chumak said. “He treats me like a queen.”

She said that Veniamin is one of the people she looks up to most in the world.

She admires his persistence with his three-year-old business, Alla’s Tile and Marble Inc., which he named after her.

“I’m very proud of him,” she said.

Chumak also looks up a great deal to Jesus, adding that she is a very faithful Christian.

“He brings out the good in all of us,” Chumak said. “He loves everybody for who they truly are.”

Chumak’s modeling career began two years ago when she began working with a Seattle-based company, Heffner Management.

Since then she has done print work with a variety of companies, including Fred Meyer, Bon Marche, Nike, Chrysler, Mervyn’s and Nordstrom, to name a few.

Chumak considers modeling a hobby, more than a career plan. If it became a career, Chumak would be satisfied.

As she put it, “Do what you enjoy in life while you can.”

Chumak plans to go into a career in health administration, particularly with long-term care or assisted living.

Despite her modeling career, Chumak does not like to be considered extraordinary.

“I don’t like to be set aside,” she said. “I’m just a normal human being like everybody else.”

Chumak’s Revlon commercial will air nationally in as soon as a week, but possibly longer. She will also be singing a piece by Rachmaninoff at noon on Feb. 27 in Lincoln Hall, Room 75.