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Nadia Jacyk Contemplates on History and Future of Petro Jacyk Education Foundation

Nov 8, 2016 | Newpathway, Community, Featured

New Pathway.

In 2016, Petro Jacyk Education Foundation (PJEF) is turning 30 years old. PJEF was established by a legendary businessman and philanthropist, Petro (Peter) Jacyk, who could arguably be called one of the most famous representatives of the worldwide Ukrainian Diaspora, of all time. Even those in Ukraine, who have little knowledge about particular Diaspora personalities, have heard about Petro Jacyk, thanks to the Petro Jacyk International Ukrainian Language Competition, which PJEF launched in Ukraine in the early 2000’s. In its 30-year history, the Foundation has launched and funded many other notable educational and cultural initiatives. The New Pathway spoke about the PJEF’s history and plans, as well as Petro Jacyk’s personality, with the Foundation’s President and Petro’s daughter, Nadia Jacyk.

New Pathway: What was Petro Jacyk‘s main motivation in all his charitable work?

Nadia Jacyk: Petro Jacyk came to Canada with $7 in his pocket. He started like everyone else, but possessed a great ambition to leave his mark, to have his life be meaningful. He was very driven, intelligent, self-disciplined, and had a good sense of humour. He took risks, but those were calculated risks for he was very analytical. All of these things helped him to progress faster than most in his group. When other young men were buying cars first, Petro focused on saving money. He thought that a car was a luxury. Within seven years of being in Canada, he purchased a small home and, two years later, built a larger bungalow house in Bloor West Village. He was very hard working and would say that “The sin is in not doing.” Petro Jacyk also understood that Ukrainians in Canada were totally underrepresented in the business community. He had read statistics demonstrating that among the Ukrainians in Canada, less than 2% were in business. Most were teachers, caretakers, labourers, and, I think, that made a big impression on him.

Petro Jacyk also understood that people had helped him and that he should help people, in return. He started his charitable work with the Encyclopaedia of Ukrainoznavstvo, in Sarcelles, France, which he helped to fund in the 1970’s. Petro Jacyk’s generation left Ukraine involuntarily, not because they wanted to, like the fourth wave of immigration. While they had to leave, they strongly felt they needed to do what they could for Ukraine from afar, to keep Ukraine alive because the Russians were trying to eradicate it. With all the russification happening, the Diaspora did what they could to preserve Ukrainian culture and language here. That generation steadfastly sent their children to Ukrainian schools. When other children were relaxing and watching cartoons on TV, I went on Friday nights and Saturday mornings to Ukrainian school and also to Plast, choirs, Ukrainian churches and more.

And once the Soviet Union started breaking down, Petro Jacyk also began helping Ukraine. He even tried to do a few business dealings in Ukraine, but he realised that from afar and not having trusted partners, it was very difficult to succeed there. Petro Jacyk started thinking about a Ukrainian language contest in 1997-1998. He met with a group of people in Ukraine and together they formed the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists, of which he was the first president and the main financial backer of the contest.

New Pathway: Tell us more about one of the Foundation’s trademark achievement, the founding of Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Nadia Jacyk: It started about the same time as the funding of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine in Sarcelles, France. A group of professors along with the community began to actively participate in a big fundraising campaign for securing Ukrainian Studies at Harvard. It was actually started by Ukrainian students at Harvard, who got people like Petro Jacyk interested in setting up Ukrainian studies in one of the best known universities in the world. It was a huge venture and took years to accomplish. Many people from the North American Diaspora, from factory worker to professional, contributed to this campaign. Petro Jacyk thought that the project had the right organizational structure and academics to successfully head this kind of program, like Professor Omeljan Pritsak. After the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the three chairs in History, Language and Literature were fully endowed, Peter Jacyk, himself, funded two Programs at Harvard: The Jacyk Distinguished Fellowship and the permanent position of a Bibliographer.

Over the years, the Petro Jacyk Education Foundation has supported Ukrainian studies in eight Universities, such as Toronto, Alberta, Columbia, York Universities and two universities in Ukraine. We continue to fund Ukrainian studies and entertain requests for programs. For us, the best way to fund programs is by a matching. In the University of Alberta project, we were lucky to get a 2:1 matching, and another 1:1 matching, which is a fabulous way of starting things. Unfortunately universities currently are experiencing decreased funding from the government and matching funds are extremely difficult to get. We are waiting to see if there are any significant proposals that come our way. The PJEF spends a lot of time liaising with universities, because, what I’ve learned is that it is not enough to provide funds and believe that, “They will follow the donor’s intent.” One has to constantly monitor the progress of programs, because everybody has their own agenda. What could happen, for example with studies of Ukrainian history, is that if you don’t monitor it, the university administration may change the intent and the endowment may go for the study of, say, Lithuanian history or Slovak history, or something else.

New Pathway: What university programs are you supporting in Ukraine?

Nadia Jacyk: We are supporting a program at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv in conjunction with the Ivan Franko Lviv National University. The Petro Jacyk Education Foundation considers itself as apolitical and non-religious, therefore we do not favour the Ukrainian Catholic University over other universities. This program, which is also a joint venture with the University of Alberta, is headed by Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak. It focuses on modern Ukrainian history. However, the programs, which we fund, do not focus solely on Ukrainian history. These programs expand into such areas as political science, literature and the arts. For instance, the program for the study of modern Ukraine at the University of Toronto is a large program and encompasses many fields of study.

New Pathway: Do you think that Ukrainian studies in the North American academia has occupied a proper position, or is there still a deficit of knowledge about Ukraine?

Nadia Jacyk: There is so much more to be done. In the academia, there are many individual interests and motives. For instance, at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, where our program is, there is a significant focus on Russian studies. Much promoting of Ukrainian issues still needs to be done, and making sure that more and more programs and lectures include Ukrainian material and not just Russian material or perspective. The next question would be, “Is there a demand for Ukrainian material in the academia?” I think the demand could be larger, and be generated by providing more information. The same could be said about the Western media – it is not talking enough about Ukraine. Again, it’s about interests and agendas. It may be that, one country does not want to disturb trade relations with a country that is larger than another, where it sees more gain in dealing with one country than another. Simply put, I do not think that any Western country is giving enough attention to Ukraine.

New Pathway: Do you think that we as the Diaspora can do more to break through this wall of ignorance?

Nadia Jacyk: I do. At the same time, I think a lot of that has to fall with the younger generation however assimilation is hindering this process. Also, the newcomers, who come from Ukraine currently, don’t seem to feel the same kind of responsibility to promote Ukraine. Many appear to be more interested in elevating themselves and their families only. This matter needs the combined effort of everybody in the Diaspora. Ukrainian Canadians are pretty powerful as a group. We have always been told that we have a powerful voice in Canada as there are 1.2 million of us. We could be doing more. It is my opinion that we need to find ways to break into the bigger Canadian and Western media. We need to have a few respected and popular journalists that can get Ukrainian content published on a consistent basis. However, unfortunately, there are not very many such journalists in the mainstream media, as of yet.

New Pathway: As the Foundation has stepped aside of the Ukrainian language contest, who is continuing this project now?

Nadia Jacyk: The project has been continued by our Ukrainian counterparts, which is what our help was about. We provided them with the fishing rod and taught them how to fish. Then it came time for them to fish for themselves. Ukrainian language in Ukraine should be Ukraine’s issue, not a Diaspora issue. Ukrainians in Ukraine must feel the need that teaching their children Ukrainian is extremely important. There are very wealthy people in Ukraine now. It’s time for them to step up and give back to the community. It is my impression that these people are still a long way from understanding the benefits and rewards of contributing to and helping a community. For them, enough is never enough and they just keep striving to increase their financial empires. They have to reach the maturity level of understanding the concept of “paying it forward”. Yes, there are some oligarchs who fund some charitable ventures, but it is all for more rewards for them, not necessarily because they genuinely feel like helping in some way.

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