Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Thu, 5 Mar 1998 12:04:42 -0800 (PST)
Sender: "Bohdan A. Oryshkevich" <[email protected]>
USA/USA 1998 Seminar Announcement
Dear Friends:
USA/USA (UKRAMEREZA) will run its sixth summer academic advising program in
Ukraine in 1998 in which scholarship students from Ukraine already studying
in the United States provide instruction to students still in Ukraine on
how and to which college preparatory high schools (lycees) and colleges to
apply to in the United States. USA/USA awards hard currency scholarships
to take college entrance exams (TOEFL, SAT I, SAT II) in Ukraine. Other
co-workers, residing in Kyiv year-round, assist the selected applicants in
all steps of the application process. Students from Ukraine run the
workshop and make the final selection of advisees. Entry into the program
is highly competitive. In 1997, over two hundred students applied for 32
places. Our 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 program participants have so far won
over 1.5 million dollars in merit scholarships from leading American
colleges.
Eligibility: Ukrainian students graduating from high school in the spring
of 1998 or 1999 and qualified to enter university in the fall of 1999.
Slots will be reserved for exceptional students in the earlier years of
their high school education who can still enter the last year of elite
college preparatory schools. All applicants should possess an excellent
command of English and be able to obtain a TOEFL score of 550 or higher.
Students who have studied in the United States should already possess an
official TOEFL score of 600. All applicants must also submit an official
transcript sent directly from their school, an essay in English on their
career and life plans, an essay in English on a chosen topic, a brief
autobiography, and a photograph. Students should also obtain one
recommendation from their school on official school stationery. Their
brief autobiography should outline their extra-curricular talents: writing
skills, artistic or leadership skills, athletic abilities, community
services activities, employment experience, their moral character and their
determination to study in America. All materials should be sent to the
Kyiv address. All applications should also include two stamped
self-addressed envelopes. Pre-screened applicants will undergo written
testing and interviews before final admission into the workshop. Test
scholarships will be available only upon successful completion of the ten
day advising workshop.
Our program is greatly overapplied. We expect over three hundred
applicants for our usual thirty two slots. But we have some gaps in
Ukraine. We have very few qualified applicants from the Kharkiv, Luhansk,
Donetsk, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts in the east. We have very few
qualified applicants from the Mykolaiv and Cherson oblasts in the south.
In the west we have very few qualified applicants from the Zakarpattia,
Lutsk, Rivne, Chernivtsi, and Ternopil oblasts. We also have many more
women applicants than men. Finally we have very few truly rural applicants
though we have many applicants from smaller cities (our 1997 32 students
came from 18 different cities). In fact our strongest student in the 1997
seminar is from Kalush. I would also welcome students from the smaller
minorities of Ukraine such as from the Crimean Tartars. Although we have
many Crimean applicants none have been Tartars. We would also welcome
applicants from the Ukrainian eastern Diaspora or ethnic Ukrainians from
the neighboring countries such as Moldova, Poland, Slovakia,.Hungary. I
would also welcome applications from orphaned children since I understand
there are 1,000,000 of them in Ukraine and they have no prospects of higher
education. We also can always use better applicants. We need more
students with the perseverance to apply to as many as 30 colleges and
students, with a strong sense of community spirit as well as with
leadership and entrepreneurial characteristics.
Site: The workshop will be held in Kyiv. Testing and interviews will be
held in Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia in
May and June 1998 depending upon demand. Schools in these cities willing
to host our admissions officers are also welcome to write to us.
Time: The workshop will be held in late June or July of 1998 depending upon
the number of applicants.
Cost: There is no charge for our program at any level. We will provide
students from outside of Kyiv with funds for travel to and housing in Kyiv.
Our program runs on the volunteer work of our co-workers in America and
Ukraine. Generous contributions from individual benefactors make our
program possible. USA/USA is a program of the Coordinating Committee to
Aid Ukraine, Inc.(USA) a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.
Limitations: All candidates must be born after June 30, 1978. Application
to our program does not guarantee entry to our program. Completion of our
program does not guarantee entry into an American college nor a
scholarship. American colleges provide all the tuition scholarship funds.
Our scholarship funds are limited to the costs of the application process.
Our program does not
provide tuition scholarships.
All applications should arrive in Kyiv after January 1, 1998 and before May
1, 1998. Final acceptance will be on site. All rejected students will
receive a flyer on how they can apply to American colleges on their own.
Our program does not select on the basis of sex, race, religion, or ethnic
origin. All students who are citizens of Ukraine are welcome to apply.
Ethnic Ukrainians from the C.I.S. or Central Europe are also welcome to
apply.
I would also welcome volunteers or sponsoring organizations. We have no
funds to support volunteers. So all volunteers will have to raise funds
with some assistance from us. USA/USA is an organization run from a
desk-top computer at home so I would welcome contributions to our program
either from the USA (where we are 501c3 organization) or from Ukraine. My
intention is to raise fifty percent of our 1998 funds in Ukraine.
If you are interested do not hesitate to write.
Bohdan A. Oryshkevich
USA/USA
[email protected]
USA/USA-Ykramerezha
PO Box 250093
Columbia University Station
New York, New York 10025-1531
[email protected]
USA/USA-Ykramerezha
Poshtova Skrynka No. 67
120 Chervonoarmiiska
Kyiv, 252006
[email protected]
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