As the 2017-2018 school year ends, it’s only fitting that we recognize all the graduates in our community. No matter what grade level – elementary school, high school, college or beyond – we salute them all as we wish them continued success.
Especially noteworthy among our graduates are the “maturanty” – those students who successfully completed the Ukrainian studies program of our Ukrainian Saturday school system. (To be sure, not all schools hold classes on Saturdays, but most do.) The network of schools that function under the aegis of the Educational Council of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) stretches nationwide, from the Northeast to the Pacific. (In addition, we should note, there are independent Ukrainian schools in various localities that are not part of the Educational Council system founded in 1953.)
The Educational Council, which functions somewhat like a national board of education, oversees the curriculum, provides textbooks, holds teachers’ seminars and publishes a magazine called Ridna Shkola to help its schools meet a goal that is vitally important to our community at large: “the preservation by American Ukrainians of the Ukrainian language and the culture of their forefathers.” The curriculum of the schools affiliated with the Educational Council encompasses language, history, literature, geography, culture and more. And, it’s not just about “Ukrainoznavstvo” (Ukrainian studies), it’s also about “Ukrainoliubstvo” – instilling a love for Ukraine, our ancestral homeland.
Students in their final year of Ukrainian school can choose to take the comprehensive oral and written exams know as “matura.” Many opt to do so, seeing the matura as the logical culmination of their many years of hard work in Ukrainian school. Passing the at-once-feared-and-revered matura and thus earning a school of Ukrainian studies diploma is viewed as a special achievement to be commended and celebrated.
Here in the Northeast, schools of Ukrainian studies are holding a joint celebration of their maturanty: 50 in all from two schools in New York City, and schools in Whippany, N.J., South Bound Brook, N.J., Stamford, Conn., and Yonkers, N.Y. At the banquet and dance being held in Hanover, N.J., on Saturday, June 9, the graduates will receive their diplomas and awards, as well as special gifts from supporters of our Ukrainian schools like the Ukrainian National Association (the publisher of this newspaper). What’s noteworthy is that those 50 graduates are half of the number nationwide. The UCCA reports that today there are 25 schools across the U.S. that are part of the Educational Council system. Of the 2,694 students enrolled, 100 have completed the matura this year.
As is pointed out in the UCCA’s 2017 Annual Report, “To this day, the methods promoted by the Educational Council of UCCA remain a true and tested formula for molding the leaders of tomorrow throughout the global Ukrainian diaspora. Notable graduates include Ukrainian Catholic Bishops Borys Gudziak and Hlib Lonchyna, former UCCA and UWC [Ukrainian World Congress] President Askold Lozynskyj, and former acting surgeon general of the United States, Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak.” And that is yet another reason for us all to applaud our maturanty!