As a foreign exchange student, leaving family for almost a year can be sad and lonely, but rewarding with its opportunities. Katya Romaniuk has seen rewards, great happiness and much sadness and worry in her five years in the U.S., coming from Ukraine.

Here is her story in her own words:

I grew up in a small city in Ukraine,  Borodynka, about 40 min from Kyiv., with my family and school there, until I was in 10th grade, That is where my family was and our apartment, but it was also one of the first cities occupied by the Russians after I left and the war began. They bombed all my neighbors in 2022 and occupied in a few days. 

My family had moved to another town before that, and I switched school to a different place, Bucha. That is the city you have read about later where many bodies were found. 

I grew up with an older sister, who is now 29 years old, she moved to Sweden with my Mom when the War began and has now moved back to Ukraine, trying to live her best life coming back, even though curfew is now midnight.

 Also I had my grandparent near by. We always had family picnics together. From May 6th, which is my father’s birthday until school started on August 31st, we had people over making BBQ and playing my favorite game, badminton, which my parents taught me. The most fun ever - running and using the racket, like tennis.

I had such a happy life, I danced for 7 years (jazz modern). We went to competitions in Lviv many times. It was a 7 hour trip on a bus, and staying in hostels.

 I always had confidence - that came from my parents. My mother is a principal of school district. She was always loud and confidence and I knew I would be like that too.

In 2020 we started COVID at home. It was actually one of the best times, because we all had to be in one place together, I hadn’t seen my sister in a while and it was wonderful to have a sibling around again. When it was going away, we planning to vacation in Odessa, and my mom needed an MRI after health issues before that trip. I had an injury as a child, so I had one scheduled also and they found I had a tumor on my head, I was 15 years old and they had to do emergency surgery on my skull. Cancelled our vacation before I would begin 10th grade.

I had all my head shaved,  just hair  from the bottom only. I was 3 weeks in hospital and parents wanted me to stay home, but I cannot be isolated and did not want to stay home from school. I told my parents, I needed to socialize and I had lots of aspiration and commitments. I was in school government and I needed my friends.

While there, I had applied to FLEX, a Ukrainian study abroad program, and was not accepted. Now I tried again after this surgery.  I applied to FLEX (Future Leadership Exchange) and went through 3 rounds of interviews. I mentioned my surgery and my resolve. I told them literally - what doesn’t kill you, make you stronger. My tumor was non-cancerous and I was able to continue on with my life. I interviewed for 9 months for the exchange program.

 I was coming home on public transportation, when I got a phone call. I did not recognize the number, but it was from Kiev.  The caller asked “Is this Kateryna?  Hey, I want to let you know you’ve been accepted to study for 10 months in America. I was in shock. I tried  even harder now to learn English. I speak quickly that is just how I speak, and now I do that in English also.  I ended up in the U.S at age 16 and turned 17 a month later.

My selected American host parents were Laurie and Barry Van Nostrand of Williamson. They have been life changing for me.

Continued on Page A10