As the summer semester begins at Florida State and many students embark on a new chapter in their academic careers, two students have taken a very different route to Florida State. Evgenia Mikhnovska and Roman Lysenko, both undergraduate students from Ukraine, will be attending classes at FSU for the summer semester as scholarship recipients of the Global Democracy Ambassador Scholarship for Ukraine. Their maturity and intelligence come to light when you meet them, and they shared a bit of their journey and what led them here to Tallahassee.

Evgenia and Roman were attending the National University of Kyiv in early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and disrupted their in-person classes. They had just returned to a normal college experience as Covid-19 restrictions began to loosen up in Ukraine and they were attending in-person classes and events again after spending much of their time in college up to that point attending virtual classes, and events. Evgenia left Ukraine to study as an exchange student in Canada and Roman left to study in Finland and then later Canada.

The Global Democracy Ambassador Scholarship for Ukraine was set up through the Institute of International Education (IIE) to provide scholarships for students from Ukraine to study for one or two semesters at universities in the US and Europe. Chef and humanitarian José Andrés; global human rights and pro-democracy activist Garry Kasparov; social entrepreneur and KIND Snacks Founder Daniel Lubetzky; and Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman initiated and serve as co-chairs of the initiative to help displaced Ukrainian students continue their studies, educate global peers on the fragility and importance of democracy, and inspire the world to stay engaged. The Director of the Center for Global Engagement, Cindy Green, was contacted by IIE in fall 2022 to see whether FSU would be willing to apply to serve as a host institution for a student(s) on this scholarship program.  After working with FSU admissions and housing, the proposal was submitted, and FSU was selected as a host institution in December. These two students were assigned to attend the full summer session at FSU.  
Although the students do not get to pick which country and university they will be attending, they are excited to be here in the US. “I was excited to come to the US to see how democracy works here,” said Evgenia. “Our main goal now is to explore democratic values and how democracy is implemented in regular life in the US.” Evgenia and Roman were political science majors in Ukraine and while at FSU they are taking classes in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy such as Social Problems, International Relations, Comparative Governments of Western Europe, and Institutional Approaches to Democracies and Dictatorships. They hope to take all they learn with them back to Ukraine.

While they are both only at FSU for the summer semester, they look forward to making the most of out of their time here. They are eager to explore Tallahassee more and hopefully meet more people from Ukraine that are at FSU or just part of the Tallahassee community. The sunshine and blue skies of Florida have stood out to them in their short amount of time here. They compare these blue skies to the grey skies in Canada, and they want to spend more time outdoors and enjoy nature. 

The “southern hospitality” they have experienced so far here in Tallahassee has stood out to them. They mentioned how people they have met with seem to take a genuine interest in how they are doing, and they want to know more about them, even compared to other parts of the US they have visited. Evgenia mentioned the more fast-paced “New York mentality” in New York City where she spent 10 days visiting before arriving in Tallahassee ahead of the semester. The small talk here in the US has also stood out to them compared to back in Ukraine. Roman mentioned how he could meet someone for “the first and probably last time in his life” and they would still strike up a conversation to ask how he was doing.

When sharing similarities between Ukraine and FSU Roman said, “Everyone will try their best to help you if you're asking for help.” Evgenia shared how Ukrainians, much like the people she has met about FSU, are very eager to share the best part of their cultures. 

Both Evgenia and Roman are socially active back home in Ukraine and miss being able to organize social movements or solve problems in their hometowns. They also miss their families and friends who they have not seen in the last year. Feeling a part of something bigger than themselves is something that they like and being away from home hasn't allowed them to do that as much because they aren’t present. In the US they feel more like ‘passengers’ rather than leaders. 

Traveling has allowed Roman to be more open to different points of view, even if they do not align with his ideals and principles. He feels he can understand other people better. “The US is a country where everyone is contributing their opinions and beliefs to a huge society, in Finland it is people all serving the country together and Canada is more of a mix between the US and Europe,” Roman shared. He added that he hopes Ukraine can have the economic power of the US and the social programs that Finland allows their citizens to benefit from. He also said that economic and political freedom and freedom of thought and expression have helped him understand other people much better and to respect their opinions.

Evgenia said the educational system in the US is much better and more progressive and that she would like to implement a lot of that back into her home university in Ukraine. This experience has also shown her that not every system or way of thinking can work in every country and that countries should be proud of successful ways of thinking or working that their country has come up with.

Evgenia and Roman are both very grateful for this opportunity here at FSU and have appreciated all of the help they have received so far!