NOTES ON PEOPLE (07/10/05)

NOTES ON PEOPLE

Awarded Ph.D. in forest economics

ATHENS, Ga. - On May 15, 2005, Tymur Sydor, a native of northwestern Ukraine, was awarded a Ph.D. in forest economics from the University of Georgia in Athens.

Dr. Sydor was born in Lutsk, Ukraine, in 1973 and graduated from Lutsk High School No. 4 in 1990. He studied forestry at the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy, now the National Agricultural University of Ukraine (NAUU) in Kyiv.

In 1993 Dr. Sydor participated in an eight-month study abroad program at Purdue University in Indiana. In 1996 Dr. Sydor graduated from NAUU with honors and became an assistant forest manager at the State Forestry Service in Ukraine. He also spent one year as an assistant instructor in forestry at NAUU.

In 1999 Dr. Sydor received his master of science degree in forest economics from Purdue University. He spent two years as a research specialist in forest economics at the University of Arkansas.

He currently works as a forest analyst/economist at FORISK Consulting in Athens, Ga., providing risk management and market analysis to forest businesses.

Dr. Sydor lives in Athens with his wife of eight years, Oksana Korolchuk, also a forester. The couple met in Kyiv when both were students at NAUU.

Presents program 'Echoes of Ukraine'

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Dr. Olga M. Cehelska, director of "Echoes of Ukraine," presented Ukrainian piano and bandura music of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on May 15.

This hands-on, one-woman show was presented with humor, artistry and great pride in the historical achievements of a country once called "The bread basket of Europe," but which lost millions to the Famine Genocide orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1933.

The focus of the evening was the story of the Orange Revolution, and the music of the masses born in the very heart of the Kyivan maidan (Independence Square). Dr. Cehelska, who was catapulted into action by inaccuracies in the presentation of Rus'-Ukraine's history even prior to the 1988 celebrations of Kyivan Rus' Christianity, has since that time committed herself to presenting no less than 12 Ukrainian programs per year.

To date, having performed on radio, television and in person, Dr. Cehelska has educated well over 100,000 school-age children about Moscow's falsification of the histories of Rus'-Ukraine and Muscovy-Russia.

Surviving a near fatal auto accident causing severe head trauma in 2003, Dr. Cehelska has since then doubled her efforts, by presenting twice as many programs as before the accident.

Prior to the Orange Revolution, her programs were billed as "Echoes of Ukraine - Songs of a Forgotten Nation." Currently, the programs are titled "Echoes of the Orange Revolution - Songs of a Nation Reborn," and that is the program Dr. Cehelska has been asked to perform at the next Virginia Music Teachers Association Convention in the fall of 2005.

Dr. Cehelska shares a universal message through her music, and no one who has ever heard her speak of ancient Rus', listened to her performances of the piano repertoire of Ukrainian composers, or watched her program on Ukraine's Orange Revolution, ever leaves quite the same. For more information, readers may log on to www.thetuca.org.

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