aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Harvard Yale Princeton and Ukrainian folk songs

[Bohdan Oryshkevich <bohdan_oryshkevich@verizon.net>]

We in the USA/USA Program have some additional good news.  One of our students previously going to Yale has been admitted to Harvard off the wait list.

 

That means that this year we have had three different students from Ukraine earn scholarships to Harvard (2), Yale, and Princeton (2).  It also means that we also have three students turning down Harvard, Yale, and Princeton this year.  They have chosen to attend Harvard turning down Yale, Princeton turning down Harvard, and MIT turning down Princeton.  An additional equally talented student is attending Vassar next year.  They come from west central Ukraine in Rivne, from the heartland in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, and from the north-eastern periphery, Kharkiv.

 

The result of this is that the USA/USA Program will be the Ukrainian student plurality at Harvard this year with five USA/USA students present out of about 12 to 20 students on that campus from Ukraine.  Three of the students will be undergraduates and two are post-doctoral students at Harvard Medical School. 

 

At the same time as one reads about the USA/USA Program on this website, one can read about the conflicts and insults that go in between the Our Ukraine and Yuliya Tymoshenko blocs in Kyiv.  These are the new Ukrainian ‘folk songs’ about which Ukrainians spend an inordinate amount of time analyzing and mulling about.

 

Perhaps, Ukrainians would be better advised to develop the future leadership of Ukraine.  Harvard, after all, was not founded for research but to educate the leadership for the Boston Puritan community.  It has gone on to develop leadership for other countries.  Even the current President of Liberia is a Harvard graduate.  Similarly, both Mikhail Shakashvili and Toomas Ilves, presidents of Georgia and Estonia, are graduates of Columbia.  The King of Jordan is a graduate of Deerfield Academy and of Oxford. 

 

Both Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko would have a different perspective on Ukraine had they been educated abroad and returned home. 

 

The students today from Ukraine studying through the USA/USA Program are much more aware of their country and its heritage.  They all speak Ukrainian now so they are fertile ground for further education.  They also pine for more appreciation and recognition from Ukraine. Since our USA/USA students are truly outstanding, they will add to the positive image of Ukraine in important academic circles in America and in Europe. 

 

Hence, the USA/USA Program is worthy of your interest and assistance.  The bulk of the investment in our program comes from the best and richest universities of the USA.  We need money to earn much more money than we spend.  We need attention to keep this talent relevant to Ukraine.   We need educated mentors for our talented students.  We also need substantive financial assistance to continuously improve our program. 

 

If you become part of our support network, you may well help us develop a fundamentally better leadership for Ukraine.

 

If you are interested in meeting our students our alumni, visiting our office, or learning more about our program, visit our website at www.ukrainianscholarships.org or write us at info@ukrainianscholarships.org or simply phone us at 1-212-785-4170 or at 1-212-475-5326

 

Bohdan A. Oryshkevich

Founder, USA/USA

New York