Canada-Ukraine internship program expands reach to Ukrainian diaspora

KYIV - The Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Internship Program is expanding to include university students from the Ukrainian diasporas of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The announcement, made on February 11 at the Embassy of Canada in Kyiv by CUPP Director Ihor Bardyn, was greeted with enthusiasm by over 100 CUPP alumni who gathered to organize the CUPP Alumni Organization.

In 2004 CUPP will bring to the Canadian Parliament 52 Ukrainian university students, one representative from each of the three diasporas and four Canadian university students.

CUPP was established in 1991 to mark the centennial of Ukrainian group immigration to Canada and the renewal of Ukraine's independence. The purpose of CUPP was to give Ukraine's students an opportunity to observe how a democratic government and market economy functions in an open society. To date over 300 university students have come to Canada to complete an internship in the Canadian Parliament.

During an interview with a Kyiv University newspaper, Mr. Bardyn commented that he was impressed with the English and Ukrainian language fluency of the candidates from Georgia and Azerbaijan, as well as the patriotism of these students. Asked why he focused on patriotism, Mr. Bardyn stated, "Patriotism and respect for language is something that will not harm Ukraine and Ukrainians, even if it emanates from Georgia."

Following the Kyiv meeting, CUPP graduates in Western Europe held a mini-reunion on February 14 at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. Rector Leo Rudnytzky addressed the CUPP graduates who are currently completing internships or working at the Council of Europe, the World Health Organization, the European Commission and universities in Bonn, Offenburg, Geneva, Bologna, London and Stockholm, about the history of the Ukrainian Free University and its future challenges.

The Western European CUPP alumni undertook to prepare a proposal for submission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation of Europe (OSCE) to assist that body in preparing the instruction manual for election observers who will travel to Ukraine in the fall.

As well, the Western European alumni wholeheartedly endorsed the adoption of the proposed charter for the registration of the CUPP Alumni Organization. The charter provides for membership in the organization of CUPP alumni and CUPP scholars, whose tuition costs for graduate studies at Oxford, Cambridge, Amsterdam, Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Toronto universities was made available by the CUPP program. The charter also provides for membership in the organization by any Ukrainian university student who completes an internship in any of the Parliaments of Western Europe or North America, or at an NGO.

A second mini-reunion will take place in Washington, for North America CUPP alumni who are currently completing internships at the World Bank in Washington or post-graduate studies at the universities of Southern California, California, Duke, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.

Among the 52 Ukrainian students who are coming to Canada in the spring and fall of 2004 are three representatives of the Tatar community of Crimea who are students at Vernadsky Tavrida University in Symferopol and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine's capital.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 14, 2004, No. 11, Vol. LXXII

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