NP-UN Western Bureau.
Students participating in international studies in Ukraine, shared their experiences with supporters of the Ukrainian Foundation for College Education (UFCE) at the organization’s annual fundraising dinner, held at St. John’s Cultural Centre in Edmonton, May 2.
Two students from Grant MacEwan University (GMU) focussed on the “Community Service Program”, while two from the University of Alberta (U of A) concentrated on “Ukraine Through Its Living Culture”, at the 25th annual Kyiv Konnection banquet.
Proceeds from the event are part of the support for the undertakings of the Ukrainian resource and Development Centre (URDC) at GMU, in particular educational programs, benefiting students and young professionals in Canada and Ukraine.
The “Community Service Program” started at MacEwan with a week of lectures and seminars, followed by a week of Ukrainian language and culture course at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, and three weeks of community service learning at a summer camp for orphaned children, organized by Help Us Help the Children (HUHTC), in the Carpathian Mountains.
Through a variety of initiatives and programs, HUHTC provides orphaned children and those deprived of parental care with immediate aid and ongoing support. Their mission is to improve their quality of life and health; and create opportunities allowing them to reach their maximum potential.
There were 200 children in the camp which was attended by GMU students Rebekah Fortier and Daniela Villa Orozco. (A third student, Christina Pelster, also participated, but was unable to make it to the banquet.) The children were divided by age into an older and younger camp. The older children camped, stayed in tents, helped cook, and cleaned dishes.
“The program was very engaging and comprehensive, and people come from all over Ukraine to deliver workshops,” explained Fortier.
“Once there, we became mentors and friends. We knew we were not going to save anyone, but we could help them become more confident and resilient and were able to give them life skills that the children could take with them in the future,” she added.
Fortier said that the trip “taught me to be more patient, more compassionate, more understanding, and less judgemental.”
“I’m fourth generation Canadian, and this trip was incredibly important to me because I was also able to reconnect to my Ukrainian heritage. This trip allowed me to meet, learn about and love more people in ways I never knew I could. I feel like this trip has made me feel even more passionate about what I want to do with my life than I already did,” she noted.
Villa Orozco, who came to Canada 11 years ago as a refugee from Colombia, taught Salsa Dance and Spanish workshop to the children.
“During the workshops, it amazed me to see how interested the children were about my culture and language, and their desire to learn… It was very touching when they gave me the nickname ‘Salsa’,” she said.
“In the camp we all became one big family, as we prayed holding hands, ate together, and sang the Ukrainian Anthem in the morning and lullabies before we went to sleep. We formed an unbreakable bond while watching shooting stars together… holding hands while climbing mountains…sharing our food…and sheltering each other from the cold,” she added.
Villa Orozco said “volunteering in Ukraine has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
“Even though volunteering cannot fix the hardships of the children… it gives them hope for the future, it lets them know that they are not alone in this world, and that somebody cares. In fact, I am still in contact with many of them,” she added.
U of A students Megan Hollinshead and Stefania Kostiuk related their experiences through “Ukrainian Through Its Living Culture”, an annual travel-study course in Lviv, run by Dr. Alla Nedashkivska, which allows students to explore the culture and the local flavour while practicing their language skills in a hands-on setting.
Hollinshead said her language improved significantly throughout the course.
“Being fully immersed in the city and having to communicate while I go about my daily life really forced me to exercise my brain and language skills to the fullest. I was able to pick up on what was being said to me more quickly, and l was able to respond in turn, faster than l had been able to at the beginning of the program. I began to understand the subtleties of the language and conversations happening around me,” she noted.
Her reading and writing skills also improved significantly.
“This program forced me out of my comfort zone,” Hollinshead said adding that prior to this program “I never thought that I would be able to hold a conversation, fleeting as it was, in a language that is not my first with no issues.”
Features that enhanced the experience were the field trips to the many castles outside the city, the visit to the Lviv National Academy of Arts, as well as just exploring the city as a whole.
Kostiuk, whose father was born in Ukraine, said students in the class had different levels of experience with the language. Some had high school, some high school and elementary, some, like her, spoke Ukrainian at home and others were from Ukraine itself, but all improved their language skills.
There was a lot of focus on modern Ukrainian, thus the students got to learn to speak the way people in Ukraine, who are their age, speak.
The immersion factor played a key role in the experience.
“Everything around you is Ukrainian so your are forced to turn on that part of your brain (that works) in Ukrainian,” she said.
Kostiuk noted that the experience of visiting a country on a tour is significantly different from going there to learn.
“The experience for me …is indescribable and something I will never, ever forget and something I will never, ever regret,” she said.
GMU President Dr. Deborah Saucier said the powerful experiences the students had “were life changing”.
“They were inspired to become far more active and involved,” she said, adding that such transformational change is what university is all about.
“It is not universities that change the world. It’s the people who make up the university who change the world. It’s our students who make the university such an agent of change,” Dr. Saucier noted.
Bringing greetings from the City of Edmonton, Ward 3 Councillor Jon Dziadyk praised GMU and URDC as a cornerstone of this relationship building between Alberta and Ukraine.
“You’re part of our future prosperity, attracting students from here and abroad, training the next generation of leaders and fostering valuable opportunities for cultural exchange and international experience.
“You’ve also ensured generations of Ukrainian Canadians grow up to appreciate and understand their rich linguistic and cultural heritage,” he said.
UFCE President Gordon Gordey served as Master of Ceremonies for the evening.
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