The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Depaul steps up for Ukrainian students
When the air raid sirens began wailing at 4 a.m. on a recent day in Lviv, Ukraine, college student Marta Haiduchok began her day seeking shelter in the basement of her apartment building.
More than 12 hours later, Haiduchok, 20, was Zooming in to her online classes at Depaul University, where she is one of 100 Ukrainian students learning alongside their American classmates in the Chicago university’s virtual classrooms.
“When the war first started I was super anxious all of the time, and it was hard to concentrate. But in my case, I’m putting so much into my education, my studies are helping me do my best to forget everything that’s going on,” Haiduchok said via a Facetime interview with the Tribune this week from her home in Lviv, located in western Ukraine about 40 miles from Poland.
After the Russian attacks upended the daily lives of millions of Ukrainians, including college students, Depaul partnered with Ukrainian Catholic University and other higher education institutions in the region to enroll more than 100 Ukrainian college students into 42 of the Chicago university’s online courses this spring quarter.
“We were perfectly positioned to be able to help, because we operate on the quarter system, and have had a partnership with the Ukrainian Catholic University for a few years,” said Gianmario Besana, associate provost for global engagement and online learning at Depaul.
Besana said he and several colleagues at Depaul had planned to
visit the university in Ukraine in June, “but obviously everything is on pause, so instantly the conversation shifted to, ‘what can we do to help Ukraine?’”
After learning many Ukrainian students and their families were displaced from their homes, and universities across the country were operating at reduced capacity, Besana said Depaul reached out to professors who were scheduled to teach online courses for the spring quarter, asking for volunteers interested in welcoming Ukrainian students to Zoom in to their virtual classrooms.
Given the eight-hour time difference with Chicago, Ukrainian students were invited to enroll in online courses offered early in the day to allow for synchronized instruction as much as possible, Besana said.
“War is no longer an abstract concept for our Depaul students, because now, they know classmates like Marta and Sofiia, which is really powerful,” Besana said.
Sofiia Kekukh, 18, who studies English philology at the National University of Kyiv-mohyla Academy, said she is enrolled in seven online courses this quarter — five with her university in Ukraine, and two at Depaul.
Kekukh, who shared her story via a Facetime interview with the Tribune this week, said she is studying online from temporary housing at an apartment in Lviv, where she arrived recently after she and her parents abruptly left their home in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in February.
“I left everything I have in my life, and took only my backpack,” Kekukh said.
The family traveled by car to a region in central Ukraine, where Kekukh’s parents are staying with relatives, while she boarded a train for a 16-hour journey to Lviv, where she is completing her coursework online.
“We are seeing Russian troops destroy our city, killing civilians, and I can’t understand how they can kill children,” Kekukh said. “But I like the process of studying, because it forces me to focus, and I won’t be any help to my country without an education.”
Kekukh is enrolled in an online course taught by Pascale-anne Brault, a French professor at Depaul, who said when the university put out a call for faculty willing to accept extra students in their online classrooms, her first thought was, “why not?”
One hurdle the Ukrainian students faced early on was ordering the online textbook, a problem that Brault said was solved when publisher Cengage immediately agreed to provide the students with free e-books and the needed platforms.
“What has really struck me about the Ukrainian students is they are extra-resilient people, even when facing these atrocities,” Brault said. “They have a thirst for knowledge, are extra eager to participate, and their inspiring work ethics are setting the tone for the rest of the class.”