Freedom and Ukrainian Students
I recently read an article about Ukrainian attitudes towards independence and creativity in the Kyiv Post by Yuliya Popova with great interest.
Since I helped found the USA/USA Program which helps talented students from Ukraine earn full four year college scholarships, I have some personal insights of my own on this topic.
Our students come not only to universities well known in Ukraine such as MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wharton, etc. But also to smaller excellent colleges such as Vassar, Sewanee, Bates, Franklin and Marshall. Our program has been in existence since 1992. So I have seen significant change in the attitudes of bright Ukrainian students. Yet, many observations of Ms. Popova that Ukrainian students are not comfortable with freedom remain essentially correct.
In my opinion, the best students from Ukraine even today are not likely to be spontaneous. Rather, they tend to be focused. They do everything to establish themselves academically (a positive), or financially (often negative), or simply physically (nearly always bad) in the West. In general, they submerge their reservations about America because life seems better here. Above all, it gives them the opportunity to challenge themselves.
Students often fail to understand the freedom that they have as a result of our program or the premise on which the program is built. Some go out of their way to make it clear that we are stupid for helping them attain freedom. Their thinking is that we are foolish to sacrifice our own needs for their benefit.
Many also fail to understand the premises of a meritocracy. Students can enter our program without paying any fees or bribes. Our students have very solid basic academic backgrounds from Ukraine and most can enter very competitive colleges. Nevertheless, some students seem to resent the program since they have to work very hard to attain their goals in our more meritocratic system. Life in Ukraine would have been easier for them. They often feel that they have to work hard alone and are not successful in forming support groups larger than two people. Because they have to work very hard to attain their personal aims, some feel that they have no obligation to be grateful, appreciative, cooperative, or helpful to the program that helped them earn a scholarship to Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. They fail to understand that voluntary group activity often leads to greater individual success. So they avoid situations that require mutual obligations. In free societies, individuals see benefit in aggregation and even in division of roles and labor all bound by mutual trust, participation and assistance.
In earlier years, Ukrainian students fell diffident in the American college environment. Today, Ukrainian students, if they earn a scholarship, often feel superior to their American college peers and even to the other equally talented students from our program.
Our program is designed to create free individuals who can make their own decisions. We, unlike other programs focused on Ukrainian students, help much younger students attain scholarships. Our scholarships are for much longer periods of time. Our program is not prescriptive. We do not have any specific demands at this time other than helping the next wave of students. We acknowledge contributions to Ukraine and the world equally. Yet, these freedoms often generate skepticism among our students.
The Diaspora with its patriotic approaches also fails to understand our underlying principles. Their approach tends to be more prescriptive. Yet, our students are returning to Ukraine in increasing numbers to take on positions of responsibility at home.
Still, many of our students eventually adjust to their freedoms and do not want to return to Ukraine because of their absence in Ukraine and their own unwillingness to fight for them back home. Few students feel that they can bring ‘freedom’ back to Ukraine. Often the students have not become totally free themselves. Others simply still resent the now better understood restrictions at home. Some even frown on freedom in the abstract but not for themselves.
Some changes are afoot. In recent years, a few of our students have actually gone hitchhiking around Europe. A few have begun to construct their own lives from scratch. One woman has gone on to study and work in India. Another to China. One student has even dared to change his major from economics/business to philosophy. Other students clearly do not want to be shackled by a secure corporate life in America or in the West.
Thankfully, we have been spared nostalgia for the Soviet era. Our students occasionally complain about the Schengen restrictions. Their lifting would provide Ukrainian students greater mobility and might provide Ukraine, in the longer term, a greater appreciation of at least the freedom of physical movement.
Yet, Ukraine remains largely an unfree society.
I do think that Czechs and Poles are different. Membership in the EU and greater freedom of mobility is now enhancing those differences.
Even though our program remains very popular with student applicants in Ukraine, only one of our applicants who applied to our program clearly expressed the desire to be free from her drab mining town in western Ukraine.
Our selection process has adapted successfully. We select students who have demonstrated genuine intellectual talents and interest. We have highly focused and academically successful students. So the academic successes of our students are, without question, outstanding.
Yet, the ability of our students to aggregate freely, explore the world, and generate group synergy still remains a work in progress. One, after all, cannot accelerate a normal process.
Those who wish to encourage the appreciation of freedom in Ukraine might do well to support our boutique program financially so that we could continue, even expand, our work.
In the long term, I am confident our gifted students will bring more than a whiff of freedom back to Ukraine.
Bohdan A Oryshkevich
Founder, USA/USA Program
New York City
A much abbreviated version appeared in the Kyiv Post as a letter to the editor.
bohdan @ August 14, 2010
