On July 16, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty, which declared that Parliament recognized the need to build the Ukrainian state based on the Rule of Law.
On August 24, 1991, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence, which the citizens of Ukraine endorsed in the referendum of December 1, 1991. Also in 1991, Canadians celebrated the Centennial of Ukrainian group immigration to Canada. To mark the Centennial, Canadian organizations planned programs and projects to celebrate this milestone in Canada’s history.
The Chair of Ukrainian Studies Foundation of Toronto marked the Centennial by establishing the CANADA-UKRAINE PARLIAMENTARY PROGRAM (CUPP) for university students from Ukraine in the House of Commons.
CUPP gives Ukrainian students an opportunity to observe parliamentary democracy and government and gain experience from which generations of Canadian, American and West European students have benefited.
Since 1991 over 1,000 university students have participated in the CUPP internship program, the Model Ukraine Conferences in Ottawa, Washington Oxford U.K. and Ukraine and Reunion Meetings with parliamentary governance programs.
In 2018 the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada became a sponsor of the CUPP program.
The following biographical sketches will introduce the 14 university students who will serve an internship in the offices of 14 members of parliament, during the Spring Sitting of Parliament in 2019.
Bohdan Kolchenko
Bohdan Kolchenko is a recipient of Wasyl Kereliuk Scholarship and will serve his 2019 Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program internship in the office of MaryAnn Mihychuk, MP for Kildonan-St. Paul. He earned his LL.B with Honors at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and is pursuing now M.A. in European Studies, political science as core area, at the Free University of Berlin. Bohdan was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and now is active in a think-tank Polis180, where he works on the issues of environmental change, energy security and cooperation, as well as volunteers for the International Federation of Liberal Youth. His area of research is e-mobility, sustainability initiatives and renewables.
Bohdan spends his free time traveling, reading and volunteering.
Valentyna Kalich
Valentyna Kalich
Valentyna Kalich will serve her CUPP 2019 internship in the office of Hon. Wayne Easter, MP from Malpeque, Prince Edward Island. Valentyna is a Governor-General Ramon Hnatyshyn Scholarship recipient. She is currently a student at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, pursuing her MA in Social Integration. She has already earned a BA in English Philology in the University of Social Sciences in Warsaw, a BA in Finance and Audit in the Central Ukrainian Technical University of Kropyvnytskyi and a Master of Science in Professional Communication in Clark University of Massachusetts in Warsaw.
She was born in Kropyvnytskyi, central Ukraine. Valentyna volunteers for LOGOS, an NGO which promotes inclusion and human rights in Ukraine, Poland and Latvia. She is also an active member of International Diplomatic Student Association in Budapest and a President of UN Security Council in Munapest, the biggest Model UN conference in Hungary.
Currently Valentyna is currently working as teaching assistant in the Institute of Intercultural Psychology and Education in Eötvös Loránd University and is in charge of the communication projects of the Institute.
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