Hewko family creates endowed scholarship at UCU in Lviv (12/24/06)

Hewko family creates endowed scholarship at UCU in Lviv

by Andrew Nynka

NEW YORK - When Lubomyr Hewko and his family gave $55,000 late last year to create an endowed scholarship at the Ukrainian Catholic University, the family aimed to create a prestigious and competitive award for scholars at the university.

In meeting the inaugural recipient of the Hewko Scholarship for the first time during a benefit luncheon for the university on December 3 in Warren, Mich., Mr. Hewko was impressed by the scholar's credentials and his dedication to the Ukrainian university.

At age 31, Roman Zaviyskyy is completing work on a doctorate in theology from England's Oxford University, where he established the university's Ukrainian Society and acted as its president in 2004-2006. His distinguished academic résumé already includes stints at Harvard University and at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, where he earned a licentiate in theology. He then worked for two years as a member of the faculty at the Ukrainian Catholic University.

A graduate of the Lviv Theological Academy (now the Ukrainian Catholic University) in 1999, Mr. Zaviyskyy can speak or read a variety of languages, including Latin, Greek, Old Church Slavonic and Hebrew, to name a few.

Mr. Zaviyskyy's academic advisor at Oxford University is Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, primate of the Church of England and leader of the Anglican Communion. Oxford is the university that plays host to Rhodes Scholars.

While the Rhodes Scholarship is the world's oldest and arguably most prestigious international fellowship - it provides scholars with two years of study at the University of Oxford in England - the Hewko Scholarship lets students choose what and where to study, though there are stipulations with the award.

Funded by the Hewko Family Endowment, the Hewko Scholarship gives a priest or a prospective priest at the Ukrainian Catholic University - currently it will be one student per year - the opportunity to study at a Western university to broaden his educational experiences.

The scholarship aims to support students who have been exposed to Western education by providing funding for studies in Western Europe, the United States or Canada to outstanding seminarians or Ukrainian Catholic priests enrolled at UCU. Once the scholarship winners finish their studies, they must return to Ukraine and commit to serving as priests in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Mr. Hewko said.

"Ukraine was behind the Iron Curtain for so many years, and this Iron Curtain prevented Ukrainians from experiencing a Western education," Mr. Hewko said, adding that Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, touched on the issue when he spoke previously of Ukraine's injured souls.

"We felt that the best way to heal these injured souls was to have well-educated priests that could reinforce the Christian morality that is greatly needed in Ukraine," said Mr. Hewko, whose wife, Natalie, has a long tradition of priests in her family.

That tradition is among the reasons the family decided to support the Ukrainian Catholic University, Mr. Hewko said.

The endowed scholarship fund was created in memory of Natalie Hewko's parents, the Rev. Bohdan and Olena Osidach, and her sister, Maria Osidach, as well as Mr. Hewko's parents, Dmytro and Maria Hewko, and his cousin Wasyl Hewko.

The couple, along with their children John, Marc and Annetta, created their own foundation in 2003 "to promote and support charitable religious and scientific organizations in Ukraine or related to Ukraine in the diaspora," Mr. Hewko said. Their donation of $55,000 went to the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation late last year in order to create the endowment that will fund the scholarship indefinitely.

"I am very delighted to be the first recipient," Mr. Zaviyskyy said, referring to the Hewko Scholarship. "On the one hand, it is a great responsibility, but on the other hand it is a great blessing."

Mr. Zaviyskyy said he will return to the Ukrainian Catholic University after completing his doctorate, a feat he says will be completed in less than two years. He hopes to become a full professor once he returns to the school, where he is currently a junior member of the faculty.

"I really feel that I am needed there and I am excited about my teaching career," Mr. Zaviyskyy said of UCU, speaking from Berkeley, Calif., where his wife, Halyna Teslyuk, and the couple's 14-month-old son, Danylo, temporarily live.

For Mr. Zaviyskyy, it means spending the next year of his life, at minimum, commuting between three cities - Oxford, England; Lviv, Ukraine; and Berkeley, Calif.

"I'm commuting in a mad triangle," Mr. Zaviyskyy said of traveling between the three cities.

Ms. Teslyuk also is an UCU graduate and something of a success story - she earned degrees at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and is completing doctoral work in biblical studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. The couple will return to teach at the Ukrainian Catholic University in several years, Mr. Zaviyskyy said.

"I am very happy that there are people like the Hewkos who are willing to support such a program," Mr. Zaviyskyy said.

Mr. Hewko, a retired General Motors research engineer, is now the president of Hewko and Associates Consulting Co., which specializes in automotive technologies. Mrs. Hewko taught at a public school and then worked as a student teacher supervisor at Oakland University. But both have a history of supporting Ukraine and hope the country can attain the expectations that many diaspora Ukrainians have of it.

"We felt that Ukraine needed help in strengthening Christian morality because of 70 years of Communist rule," Mr. Hewko said. "That's probably the biggest commodity the university has and the biggest demand in Ukraine, the need for moral leaders," he said, adding that the university is playing its own role in rebuilding the country.

"They have a very good chance of becoming a leading university in Ukraine, and they're well on their way to that," Mr. Hewko said.

Further information about the UCU in English and Ukrainian is available on the university's website at www.ucu.edu.ua. Readers may also contact the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, 2247 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60622; phone, 773-235-8462; e-mail, [email protected]; website, www.ucef.org. The phone number of the UCEF in Canada is 416-239-2495.

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