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Do Bright Ukrainians Need Third Places?

Did you ever ponder how much is discovered, created, solved and made possible by curious young minds? Whether one looks at the student-run Youth League of the African National Congress activating a vigorous struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the creation of Skype, the first online telecommunication software, in Estonia, or even the dawn of Google, the best online search engine and the top performing company on Wall Street today, one notices that all these and thousands of other brilliant endeavors were fueled by boiling young minds of students who cooperate.

AlinaVolobuyeva retelling her theater performance at Bates College to Anatoliy Khomenko and Bohdan Oryshkevich in a café in East Village

USA/USA Program, initially created to coach Ukrainian students to win full scholarships to top-flight colleges and universities in the USA has slowly evolved into a network and a common ground for these young scholars. While the sociologists and city planners break their backs to create “third places,” as Ray Oldenburg called them in his book, “The Great, Good Place,” locations where individuals can interact outside of workplace and home, the USA/USA youth finds these “third places” everywhere delving into active communication. At different schools hundreds of miles away, they use email and Facebook to discuss math assignments, share photography works, review books or think through political ideas. Whenever they end up in the same city, they never miss an opportunity to enjoy each others’ wit in person. Any location goes: restaurant, a bench in a park, an apartment where one of the USA/USAers live, etc.

This is how I first met Iryna: sitting on the floor with 5 more USA/USA students and alumni, drinking tea, laughing and talking about their school courses. At first I was unsure that this young sporadic and vivacious girl constantly laughing and teasing the other students could ever be serious. However, I had to change my mind a second later when she picked up an argument with another USA/USAer. Both knowledgeable in the subject, they ardently grappled with the ideas for several minutes, but soon took off to check who is actually right against a third source. “True scholars - they actually went to look it up,” I thought.

As I found out, born to a family of a former militia officer and a pharmacist, Iryna grew up in Rivne. Her first educational endeavors started at school #15, which provided her with a firm knowledge base. An excellent student since first grade, she, nevertheless, understood what excellence meant to her only two years later and always pushed herself much farther than other all-A students since then. “I won the school English competition in elementary school, and was pronounced a school star. Basking in “you are more than prepared for the city competition,” I was sure of my victory. The third place was a devastating surprise. I suddenly knew that listening to praise was exactly what distracted me from studying as hard as I normally would. I never listen anymore; I just make sure to compete with my clever peers, learn from them where possible and to prepare better than the teachers point out as sufficient. I don’t want to be in third place, I am going for the first.”

Iryna Shakhmantsir doing homework for her Art History class at the Hotchkiss School

I discovered exactly this hard-working attitude displayed in Iryna’s track record. She won a third place at the all-Ukrainian English Olympiad in 9^th grade and beat everybody taking gold in 10^th; as gifted in sciences as in humanities, Iryna continuously participated and won prizes at school and city Olympiads in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics. As one of the best Ukrainian students, Iryna was sponsored by the American SSEP Program to come for a month-long trip to North Dakota. At 14, this girl outscored everybody in the competition for 10 places in the USA/USA Program Seminar and then so charmed the interviewers that the decision about her acceptance was unanimous. The USA/USA Seminar of 2005 became the “third place” for interaction with students on a par with her, a kind of reality check that Iryna needed to push herself to a new achievement. “Hanging out with the USA/USAers that summer opened new horizons of international education and gave me new ideas. It definitely pushed me to work harder in order to win a full scholarship,” said Iryna.

Holding the Light by Iryna Shakhmantsir

This seems to be an experience of every USA/USAer - gaining an access to a pool of hardworking young minds not only forces them to work extra hard and compete with the best, but also to learn from and stimulate each other. “Some of us are into amateur photography, Photoshopping and art history,” explains Iryna, a mischievous smile shining from her face, “We like to share and comment on each other’s work, some even do small photo shoots together.” Ivan Kozyryev adds, “I have read Aldous Huxley recently, and found a peer from the Program with who I could discuss Huxley’s ideas strolling through the streets of New York City . Both, reading and the conversations that followed provoked so many thoughts!” It helps that the students have a man of what seems like boundless knowledge, Dr. Bohdan Oryshkevich, as their leader and the heart of the Program. Internationally educated medical doctor, he is not by any means limited to that field. Dr. O, as students call him, is equally able to take students on a historical journey walking them through neighborhoods of New York City or peek at ancient Europe speaking about economics of the Neolithic era. Dr. Oryshkevich jokingly says, “I started this Program so that I could interact with smart young people,” and continues seriously, “I want students to think, I want them to cooperate and work with each other. I ask them for strategic advice on the most serious issues within and outside of the Program. My idea was to create an organization built from the bottom up. I am not interested in being a dictator, it’s a student organization.”

In the fall of 2008 USA/USAers, Iryna among them, will have four full scholarship students starting their first year at MIT, Princeton, Yale and Vassar. What does such a network of talented youngsters in and outside of Ukraine mean for their motherland, which is often dragging on the bottom of the International Monetary Fund’s and World Trade Organization’s evaluation charts? Iryna said, “I do hope things will get better, after all USA/USA can potentially produce so many leaders in different areas for this country. I cannot predict future, but I, personally, will try to do something. One individual can make a difference. Now think what a group of motivated young people, such as USA/USA, could do!” I also hope that student interaction of young vivid Ukrainians like Iryna in the “third place” of the USA/USA network will help Ukraine reach the top place in its development and international image.