The Washington Group sponsors summer intern for Ukraine's Embassy (10/10/99)

The Washington Group sponsors summer intern for Ukraine's Embassy

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - For the fourth year in a row, the Ukrainian Embassy here had the services of a summer intern funded by The Washington Group, a Washington-based association of Ukrainian American professionals.

This year's intern was Valentina N. Yarr, 23, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota. Her two-month internship not only fit the needs of the Ukrainian Embassy but also helped further her own career plans, which now are focused on international affairs, Ms. Yarr said in an interview.

She did quite a bit of translating of Embassy news releases and other documents from the Ukrainian into English, and helped the Embassy staff prepare brochures and fact sheets about Ukraine, as well as draft letters in English. The subjects varied from official government policy to parking problems in front of the Embassy building.

In the process, she expanded her knowledge of Ukrainian, learned to work in a "Ukrainian environment" and saw how a Ukrainian diplomatic mission operates - all in all, a "beneficial" and "unique experience," Ms. Yarr said.

"They kept me quite busy" at the Embassy, she said, especially with translations. "That was the most challenging part of my work, because my Ukrainian was more conversational, and coming here I had to broaden it."

"One part of my reason for getting involved in international relations was that I've always had a life-long interest in Ukraine just because of the way I was raised."

A second-generation Ukrainian American, born and raised in Minneapolis, Ms. Yarr went through what many would call a "traditional" Ukrainian American upbringing.

"We were raised speaking Ukrainian before speaking English," she recalled. Most of her weekends and spare time were spent in Ukrainian school at St. Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church, at activities, including summer camps, of the youth organization ODUM, playing in the bandura, dancing in the local SUMA dance ensemble, and, last year, teaching at St. Catherine's Ukrainian Orthodox Church Ukrainian school near St. Paul.

Ms. Yarr majored in international relations at Minnesota University, with a focus on Eastern Europe and a minor in Russian. Before graduating and coming to Washington for the internship, she spent three months as an intern at the Minnesota International Center, assisting in its international outreach program, which brings U.S. and foreign government officials to speak before Minnesota audiences.

In 1998 Ms. Yarr attended Harvard University's Ukrainian Summer Institute; she spent the summer before that in Ukraine - her first visit to her parents' homeland.

Undecided about whether to continue her concentration on international relations in graduate school or go to law school, Ms. Yarr plans to stay in the Washington area for the time being, finding work with a think-tank or some other institution that deals with Ukraine.

The Washington Group, which provided Ms. Yarr with a $1,500 stipend for her work, initiated the Ukrainian Embassy summer intern program in 1996 through its Fellowship Fund. Established 15 years ago as an organization for Ukrainian American professionals in the Washington area, TWG has expanded its membership to more than 400 professionals, only half of whom reside in the capital area. The rest live elsewhere in the United States and in other countries, including Ukraine.

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