First-year student from Ukraine hopes to find purpose helping others
"I just love to explore new cultures and new countries," says Yuliia Vyskrebenets, a native of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, who began her first year at the U of A last month. "That's always been like taking a deep breath for me – it's something new."
Chris Richards/University Communications
Every one of the University of Arizona's 9,300 first-year students had to submit their official transcripts to the university before they could start classes last month.
Very few likely had to do that the way Yuliia Vyskrebenets did.
She stuffed the documents into a manila envelope and boarded a plane in Bucharest, Romania. From there, Vyskrebenets and her transcripts stopped for layovers in Frankfurt, Germany, and Denver before landing in Tucson.
Vyskrebenets is from Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The city, in the country's southeast, has endured attacks from Russia since the invasion in early 2022. The war has led to the closing of many embassies in Ukraine, turning routine affairs – such as submitting transcripts – into logistical nightmares.
Vyskrebenets has now begun her first year at the U of A, where she will study philosophy, politics, economics and law in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her experience with her transcripts is hardly the biggest challenge Vyskrebenets has faced in recent years.
Vyskrebenets finished high school in a country under attack. But an upbringing that made her curious and appreciative of other cultures led her to the U of A. Now, she's working toward a career helping to solve global humanitarian issues.
"I just love to explore new cultures and new countries," she said. "That's always been like taking a deep breath for me – it's something new."
Driven by curiosity
Vyskrebenets, second from right, with her family (from left): Her brother Vlad, mother Tanya and father Valentine.
Courtesy of Yuliia Vyskrebenets
Vyskrebenets, 17, grew up in Mykolaiv, a regional metropolis that sits at the confluence of two rivers that feed the area's farmlands.
Her family – which includes her father Valentine, mother Tanya and older brother Vlad – helped foster her curiosity as a child. She also spent much of her childhood with grandparents who are former schoolteachers.
"They're really intellectual, smart, bright people and I always had an opportunity to talk to them and know something new," she said.
Vyskrebenets was raised to appreciate other cultures, thanks largely to a multicultural family. Her dad and brother are ethnically Ukrainian but both were born in Tajikistan. Her mother was born and raised in Ukraine. Both of her grandmothers are Russian, and one grandfather is of Czech and Polish heritage.
In grade school – known as grammar school in Ukraine – Vyskrebenets was drawn to language courses and some science subjects, such as chemistry. Fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Vyskrebenets began learning English in fourth grade and attended bilingual high school classes, where half the courses in her schedule were taught in English.
She competed nationally in academic Olympiads, similar to academic decathlons in America. In her free time, she learned piano and competed in fencing, the combat sport with swords.
All of it changed on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian soldiers streamed across the border and into many Ukrainian cities, including Mykolaiv. The city was shelled.
The shelling spared Vyskrebenets' family home, but life changed drastically in a single day. Students were forced to stop attending schools or move to online classes. But Russia's attacks on the grid made online learning unpredictable.
Vyskrebenets at Fairytale Park, a children's park in the heart of Mykolaiv.
Courtesy of Yuliia Vyskrebenets
Vyskrebenets and her mother moved to Italy in April 2022 to live near family for several months. The shelling continued – Vyskrebenets said she counted 40 bombs that fell on Mykolaiv in a single day in July of that year.
"Honestly, I couldn't believe that Russians had attacked our city. It was really unexpected," she said.
Vyskrebenets' family home is still standing, she says. As far as she knows, they simply got lucky. Many of their neighbors' homes were destroyed.
Exciting program, kind people
As time for college planning approached, the war made clear that Vyskrebenets would not attend college in Ukraine.
She zeroed in on the Netherlands, the U.K. and the U.S. to start looking for schools. An agent with an education company in Ukraine helped Vyskrebenets search for and apply to schools in those countries. The University of Arizona was one of only two U.S. universities that made Vyskrebenets' short list – the other was Suffolk University in Boston – based largely on her desire to study international relations.
Though the U of A does not offer a degree in international relations, Vyskrebenets said she was drawn to the Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, policy, economics and law in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Department of Political Economy and Moral Science.
She said it's the perfect step toward a career as an international attorney, based in the U.S., working to help solve humanitarian issues.
"My major is really better than I expected because I can learn a lot about politics, about economics, so I'm really excited," she said, adding that she's also exploring opportunities to study abroad in her program, perhaps somewhere in Europe.
But it was also the community that drew Vyskrebenets to the university.
"The people here are just so easygoing and kind," she said.
Already making connections
Overlooking the water from Mykolaiv.
Courtesy of Yuliia Vyskrebenets
Just a few weeks into her first semester at the U of A, Vyskrebenets is keeping her goals as a first-year student simple: Make friends and academic connections, improve her English and get a better understanding of how things work in the United States.
She's off to a good start.
Vyskrebenets is involved in the Blue Chip Leadership Experience, a program by Student Engagement and Career Development designed to help students make connections on campus and build skills such as leadership, teamwork and communication. She's also connected well with her roommate in her dorm.
Every morning since arriving in Tucson, Vyskrebenets has video-called her family in Mykolaiv, where the fallout from Russia's invasion two-and-a-half years ago continues. The frontline of the war, Vyskrebenets says, is now near Kherson, a major Ukrainian city about an hour's drive east of Mykolaiv.
Vyskrebenets plans to go back to Ukraine during the university's winter closure in December. For that trip, she'll leave the transcripts behind.
Originally posted on news.arizona.edu.