Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce to you, Miss Oksana Ivanyshyn, Park’s very own Lady of Ukraine.
Oksana is a tenth grader here as a foreign exchange student from the Ukraine, and I had the pleasure of getting an interview with her.
She is fifteen, and living with a host mother in Cottage Grove during her stay. At home she has both a mother and father, as well as a little 4-year-old brother. Oksana is also highly talented with languages in comparison to most of us at Park as well, she can speak Ukrainian, Russian, German as well as, of course, English. She enjoys hobbies such as photography and painting. Lucky for me, I was having issues with my camera that she helped me with when I took her photo, thanks Oksana!
She signed up in Lviv for the foreign exchange program after hearing an announcement in school, anyone interested in the program was welcome to come to a meeting. From her sign up date in October last year it took six months to find out she was a finalist to partake in the program. Oksana had to take three tests to qualify, afterward she had more orientations with the other finalists to come to the U.S.
Oksana had her first contact with her host mother only a month before coming to the U.S. and says that even though doesn’t have more people in the home with her, like her normal family, she is enjoying her stay very much. She says she feels like herself at home, and that it wasn’t hard to integrate herself into the new home – or our school – at all.
I asked her if she noticed any major differences in things such as culture or maturity in people and life here in the U.S. that was different in Ukraine, and there were just a few. She said that the education system was different as was food, and some culture and traditions. Holidays were also different, such as Thanksgiving, since they don’t have a need to celebrate our arrival to the new world. Christmas is similar, but there are some differences with Easter.
Finally, I asked her to tell us something, anything, as a final comment and word, I’d like to give you her full response in her own words, so you can get a taste of who Miss Oksana Ivanyshyn is:
“This exchange year is a great experience for me, it’s so interesting to learn something new about culture and traditions of another country. I’ll never forget this year. If somebody has a possibility to be an exchange student, try it without any hesitation! J ”
Welcome to Park, Minnesota, and America our Lady of Ukraine. We’re glad you feel at home here and hope to get to know you better over the year!
This year I walked into a chaotic mess when I entered lunch, but that died quite quickly. I found a friend, and she found another already at a table, so we went to sit with her. I took my seat and looked up to see another girl I knew and a fresh face. I smiled and introduced myself and asked her name, I was greeted in return by a shy smile, a soft voice, and a great accent.
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