Peace Corps and Ukrainian Catholic University celebrate their ongoing collaboration (02/22/04)

Peace Corps and Ukrainian Catholic University celebrate their ongoing collaboration

by Matthew Matuszak

LVIV - Karl Beck, director of the Peace Corps in Ukraine, visited the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv on February 6. Mr. Beck came to open an exhibition of photos taken by a former corps volunteer in Ukraine. During the press conference following the opening, the director explained that the Peace Corps offers Ukrainians "the opportunity to study English with native English speakers and to learn management skills from those with business experience in the U.S." Both of these areas have been important in the past and present collaboration between the Peace Corps and UCU.

"Ukraine Through the Eyes of an American Peace Corps Volunteer" is an exhibition of 53 photos out of some 17,000 taken by former volunteer Richard Krauze while he was in Ukraine in 2001-2002.

Though his main activity was teaching business development in the neighboring Rivne region, Mr. Krauze also traveled to Lviv during his two years in Ukraine.

"Rich had taken pictures of the pope when His Holiness briefly stopped in St. Louis in the 1990s," said Prof. Jeffrey Wills, vice-rector at the UCU. "He was volunteering in Ukraine at the time of the papal visit [June 2001], and he wanted to continue his stint as 'papal photographer.' We gave him the opportunity."

The information office of the Ukrainian Catholic University (then the Lviv Theological Academy) was responsible for running the Lviv office of the Papal Visit Press Center, and Mr. Krauze helped take photos of the pope's blessing the university's new building project.

Collaboration between the corps and the university continued in 2002-2003 when another volunteer taught the students advanced English.

There are currently 170 Peace Corps volunteers serving in Ukraine, and since the program was established here in 1992, there have been over 650 corps volunteers in the country. There are now eight volunteers in the city of Lviv.

"Lviv will be a vanguard to the opening of Ukraine to the West," said Mr. Beck. "It will soon be very close to the European Union, when Poland joins. Consequently, the corps hopes to increase the number of its volunteers in the Lviv region."

Numerous projects of the Ukrainian Catholic University are benefiting from two current Peace Corps volunteers based in Lviv, Thomas and Cristina O'Keeffe. The O'Keeffes came to Ukraine in March 2003. Mr. O'Keeffe, who worked at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank in New York City, is helping the Lviv Credit Union with long-term business and marketing strategy. But he has also gotten involved in youth activities at the William Petrach Library in Dobrotvir, 40 miles from Lviv.

The UCU oversaw the construction of the library, which was completed in 2003. Now UCU is "organizing programs to get students involved with the new library, like the English Club that I'm helping run," explained Mr. O'Keeffe.

Ms. O'Keeffe's main project is helping at a youth employment center in Lviv. One of her secondary projects is teaching students of UCU's Institute of Non-Profit Management about public relations. Mr. O'Keeffe also appeared at the Institute as a guest lecturer on recruiting new hires and internship programs and is helping the university establish its own credit union.

"Because of my Roman Catholic background," said Mr. O'Keeffe, "I can identify with UCU's goal of promoting good Christian values." Mr. O'Keeffe's regional manager for the Peace Corps recommended he look into UCU for secondary projects to get involved in, and O'Keeffe is glad he did. "I'm excited about our projects at UCU. I find it easy to work with the people here, because of their fluency in English, their friendliness, and their openness to new ideas. I hope to get more opportunities to help out."

For further information about the Ukrainian Catholic University, contact the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, 2247 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60622; phone, (773) 235-8462; fax, (773) 235-8464; e-mail, [email protected]; website, http://www.ucef.org.

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