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Scholarships ranging from $100 to $500 annually (depending on the country and grade) may seem minimal by U.S. standards. However, it is important to understand that these sums are determined by the exchange rate and cost of living in each country: $100 US is equivalent to 500 hryvni in Ukraine, the average monthly salary earned by a teacher at this time. Periodically, the Scholarship/Children- Student Sponsorship Program publishes a report, which includes financial statements, donations and benefactors' names, names of graduates, and the names of their respective sponsors. A new booklet will be released in time for the program's 40th anniversary in 2007. In order to defray the costs of administration, the UNWLA Scholarship Program office is staffed by five working committee member volunteers, including the chairwoman, which keeps administrative costs under 10%. Archival materials are kept at University of Minnesota Immigration Archives in Minneapolis, MN. When the sponsorship program began, trusted professionals and educators (both religious and lay) in Brazil and Argentina recommended pupils and students as candidates for UNWLA assistance. At that time, mandatory schooling in Brazil was only to the 4th grade level; in the 1990s, the government raised the mandatory requirement to the 8th grade level. Because higher education was available only in the cities, students from rural areas were required to live in boarding schools. For most farmers and large families with lesser means, the cost was prohibitive, and some attempted to pay for their children's education in unusual ways. Farmers, for example, offered their crops as payment (tobacco, tea, beans, etc.), but when the crops failed the whole family was in trouble and children were taken out of school. More often than not, students attended school at night (including high school, vocational school, and/or university), working at menial jobs during the day to support themselves. This prolonged their schooling. In the beginning, most of the young women participating in the program chose to become teachers or nurses, a choice that made it possible to combine a profession with raising the family. In recent years, a new generation of young women has chosen different career paths, achieving success in many varied professions. Presently, the Scholarship Program includes both male and female parti cipants, from first grade pupils to doctoral can didates. All pupils and students are recommended annually; required documentation is submitted with each application according to program guidelines. Periodic visits by UNWLA Scholarship Program Chairs to schools in countries participating in this program have strengthened our belief in its value and potential for expansion. In 1985,1 visited boarding schools and met with educators, directors, and rectors of schools and seminaries and with scholarship recipients in Brazil and Argentina; in 1989, I made similar trips to Poland and Yugo slavia. By 1990, we had scholarship recipients in 17 countries, close to 1,000 students annually. My first visit to Ukraine as Scholarship Program Chair was in 1992. During her 9-year tenure as program chair, Luba Bilowchtchuk traveled to South America in 2002 and founded the UNWLA Alumni Association in Brazil. Ms. Bilowchtchuk and current chair, Maria Polanskyj, also traveled to Ukraine. In each country, we found dedicated educators and families who understood that education is the vital key to the development and actualization of young people who will become proactive members of their respective communities with the power to influence and shape social evolution and improvement. With this in mind, we focused on one student—one sponsor at a time. Our work was made possible by generous sponsors who believed in our mission and provided both financial and moral support. 38 Years of Volunteerism and Results Statistics show that from 1993 to 2001, we had 1,135 graduates in 16 countries: 7 PhDs, 155 Masters Degrees, 402 baccalaureate degrees, 548 high school diplomas, 23 vocational school certif icates. In those nine years alone, 5,918 scholarships were awarded, totaling $1,274,795. We need to transpose these cold numbers into human beings. Each statistic represents a child, a person, a struggling family that was assisted by our program. Each has a story to tell; each has accomplished an almost impossible task under most difficult circumstances. One young woman from Poland, who participated under our program through high school, received her PhD from Harvard University with a full fellowship and wrote her thesis in three languages: English, Polish and
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