Paula inherited her mother's natural affinity for learning new languages and became fluent in French, Spanish and Belarusian as a child.
[1] Like her mother, a prominent defender of Belarus culture,[2] Survilla became an activist at a young age, founding and chairing the Youth Canadian Ethnocultural Council.
[2] In 1991, Survilla received a Fulbright Scholarship, which allowed her to conduct original research in Białystok, Poland[2] and then Belarus.
[2] After her research, she taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and moved with her husband to Waverly, Iowa, where they both became professors at Wartburg College.
Continuing her work as an activist, she initiated college projects that included the Humanities Think Tank and the Hearthside Series.