PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — While the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating, some students who escaped the conflict in their homeland are preparing to graduate from high school in Philadelphia.
As they collected their caps and gowns, four seniors at String Theory Charter School’s Philadelphia Performing Arts Vine Campus reflected on their futures and expressed concern over their war-torn home.
Olesia Skorets,18, moved to Philadelphia from Ukraine just after the war began, in 2022, and enrolled at String Theory.
“I knew like zero English, and teachers helped me a lot to learn it,” she told KYW Newsradio. “Ukraine is more home for me, but America is home too.”
Olesia is seeking a career as a dermatologist, and she’s headed to Holy Family University in the Fall. She has no immediate plans to return to Ukraine.
“I don’t even know, but I think my future will be here,” she said.
With her hometown of Lutsk being bombed, Sofiya Ionina, 17, is concerned about her family in Ukraine.
“I called my grandmother a couple of days before, because some bombs were just next to her. Like, it’s two houses away from her,” she said. “Of course, I cry sometimes when I think about this. Or, just, I’m very worried about her.”
“Maybe in the summer I can come back to my grandmother,” Sofiya said. “She’s still in Ukraine with my cat, she’s waiting for me. I hope I can come back, but I want to stay at least in America.”
Sofiya also plans to attend Holy Family University to study graphic design.
The reality of war also hits home for senior Mykola Peredruk, 18, who is in the United States with his mother and sister. His father was wounded defending his country.
“Of course it makes me feel bad,” Peredruk told KYW Newsradio. “My dad is a soldier. He used to be in the war, but then he got a lot of traumas, and he’s a veteran right now,” Peredruk said.
After graduation, Peredruk is headed to Penn State Abington, with no plans to return to Ukraine anytime soon.
“I have a house here and I made a lot of progress here, so I don’t want to go back,” he said. “So far.”
When String Theory senior Oleksandr “Sasha” Melenchuk arrived in Philadelphia in August of 2023, the transition was eased when he bonded with other Ukrainians in his community.
“We kind of discussed how we felt – our emotions and what should we do? How do we learn new English? How do we find friends?” he asked. “I do have a hope in my heart that someday I will come back to my home and see all of my friends, parents, and my dog, especially.”
Melenchuk plans to study video production at the Community College of Philadelphia. He said he felt anger over the war in the early months, but today chooses to tackle life’s challenges as they arise.