USA/USA helps students obtain scholarships (11/03/96)

USA/USA helps students obtain scholarships

by Bohdan A. Oryshkevich

NEW YORK - In two years, the number of students from Ukraine who have earned scholarships directly as a result of USA/USA seminars in Kyiv has more than doubled to 16. To better meet its objectives, USA/USA, an organization that matches Ukrainian students with scholarships to attend universities in the United States, has moved to New York City and become a program of the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine Inc.

As a result of its fourth annual seminar, held in 1995, six students from Ukraine have won complete aid packages enabling them to enter six leading American liberal arts colleges. These include: Pavlo Kharitonov of Kyiv, who will study computer sciences at Lake Forest College; Katerina Shishova of Kerch, biology at Mt. Holyoke College; Yuliya Khomska of Lviv, international relations at Colby College; Yaroslava Babych of Kirovohrad, comparative literature at Franklin and Marshall College; Andrij Poshtaruk of Lutsk, astronomy at Brown University; and Olexii Andriichenko of Zaporizhzhia, Grinnell College.

These six scholarships add up to over $600,000, bringing USA/USA's four year scholarship total to $1.3 million. This has come at a total cost to the Ukrainian American community of about $20,000.

Sixteen USA/USA students have now earned full grants: three to Mt. Holyoke, two to Smith, two to Grinnell, and one each to Yale, Brown, Middlebury, Lafayette, Colby, Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, Lake Forest, Franklin and Marshall, and Southwest State University in Minnesota. Two-thirds of these students are women. A majority are majoring in economics. They represent most social strata and all major geographic regions of Ukraine, except the eastern oblasts of Kharkiv and Donetsk where English language instruction appears to be weaker.

Two USA/USA students, before their entry into American colleges, had won first place in national academic competitions in Ukraine: Yuri Omelchenko of Kyiv won the Junior Achievement Award of Ukraine in 1994, and Miss Babych won the high school All-Ukrainian English Language Olympiad in 1993. In addition, one student, Mr. Andriichenko, managed to obtain partial but very substantial supplemental funding for his American studies through aid from EPE Kreoma, a Ukrainian company specializing in environmental protection.

The students are excelling in the United States. They have earned internships with Merrill Lynch, the Business Council for International Understanding, Deutsche Bank and Microsoft.

This program has been made possible through generous seed money given by the Ukrainian National Association in 1993 and 1994, and by a large contribution made in 1994 by Dr. George and Oksana Melnykovych of Overland Park, Kansas. Most recently, Self Reliance Federal Credit Union of New York City has provided financial assistance.

Many USA/USA students have benefited from travel grants provided by the Soros Foundation. The organization has benefited from office space provided by the University of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Special thanks also goes to Marian Kots of Hunter, N.Y., for providing moral support and funds for an intern in 1993.

USA/USA's work is continuing. USA/USA is seeking better ways to serve the students already here in the United States and to fund a coordinator position to do the day-to-day work of administering and expanding the program. Such a position should result in further increases in the amount of scholarships won every year and expansion into other activities such as internships for USA/USA and other students from Ukraine.

USA/USA's new address is P.O. Box 250093, Columbia University Station, New York, NY 10025-1531. Its e-mail address is [email protected]. Interested parties can telephone (212) 475-5326. All contributions are tax deductible.