Credit: Manor College.
Manor College was founded by the Ukrainian Sisters of Saint Basil the Great in 1947, and, today, many Ukrainians continue to call Manor College home.
On the three-year anniversary of the war, several Ukrainian students, many of whom left Ukraine at the outset of the war, talk about their home country in their home language. Manor College recently released the below video where Ukrainian students talk about their experiences with the war.
The Washington Post also featured Manor College students and faculty members in a recent article profiling the war.
Manor College's Ukrainian Students Speak About Ukraine on War's Third Anniversary
Several Manor College voices, including two current students, were featured in a Washington Post article profiling the war in Ukraine.
From the article:
Sofiia Ogerchuk, 19, a student at Manor College, came to the United States three months after the war began to live with her aunt. She recalled the terror and anxiety of a fire alarm here that triggered memories of those first air-raid sirens over Ukraine.
But now, Ogerchuk said, the community around her has made her feel welcome. “I didn’t know there were Ukrainian communities in America. Seeing a Ukrainian grocery store, when I saw Ukrainian products, I was like, ‘Wow, we have it here too!’”
Ogerchuk, a psychology major at Manor, plans to return to Ukraine when the war is over. “With this knowledge, I’m going to [go] back to Ukraine. I’ll be able to help all Ukrainians that I will meet,” she said. “I could help Ukrainians who struggle, after the war, because hopefully it will end by the time [I graduate].”
Many students and faculty at Manor College are of Ukrainian descent, fleeing the current war and descendants of Ukrainian World War II survivors. The college’s business cards even indicate faculty members’ Ukrainian language proficiency.
Whether they’ve been in Pennsylvania for three years or generations, both the Americans and Ukrainians felt a responsibility to maintain hope and stay united as a community in the United States.
“Today, all Ukrainians, we’ve been very proud of President Zelensky for three years for standing up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” said Nicholas Rudnytzky, dean of academic services at Manor College. “We’ve been very proud of our home, of our ancestral home, for standing up to Moscow. I think today we’re even prouder for him standing up to Trump.”
