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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 2009 27 sing (in Ukrainian ) Leontovych’s “Shchedryk,” the ubiquitously misused and misnamed “Carol of the Bells” that has become as popular in television advertising as it has during holiday radio medleys of Christmas music. We shifted gears to Roxolana’s Master’s and her choice of thesis — The Human Rights and Security Implications of the Pre - Flight, Flight, and Post - Flight Experiences of Ukrainian Displaced Persons (DPs) Post - World War II, a subject she intends to pursue and expand upon while ear ning her PhD. The daughter of post - war immigrants, she first became interested in the subject because of her parents. Her father was a refugee from Lviv; her mother was born in a displaced persons camp in Austria. The impetus to research the subject furthe r was spurred from another direction as well — her interest in world cultures. It was this interest that made her major in International Studies and minor in Political Science while earning her BA from DU, become the student outreach officer and later presid ent of an organization called the “International Society Anywhere But Antarctica,” (ISABA), and make friends from around the world (her current roommate, for example, is from Japan). As an undergraduate, Roxolana studied abroad, in Greece and Italy, comb ining classroom lessons with volunteer projects related to assisting refugees, including some from Ukraine. On a theoretical level, she used what she learned to write reports on immigration laws and minority dis - crimination, and on social and linguistic co nstraints that made manual labor the only means by which highly educated refugees could support themselves and survive. On a practical level, she volunteered in a soup kitchen in Athens, Greece, where she served refugees and immigrants from all over the wo rld. Through the CEFAL School in Bologna, Italy, she taught English to various immigrants from different parts of the world and to local Italian youth While studying in Bologna, she also applied and was accepted into a prestigious DU program that allowed h er to begin her MA graduate courses while completing her BA coursework. Part of her senior year as an undergraduate and first year graduate student was spent in El Salvador doing volunteer work with a nonprofit organization called “Circulo Solidario.” Sh e taught English to local children, picked coffee beans from an active volcano, played sports with young people in gang communities, and helped set up a street clean - up campaign and a women’s rights campaign. Roxolana has also done volunteer work at the Af rican Community Center in Denver, a nonprofit refugee organization. Her work at the center was noted by her thesis advisor, Professor Peter Van Arsdale, who recommended her for an internship that involved assisting case managers with the resettling of refu gees in the Denver area. As president of the University of Denver’s graduate organization Association of Human Rights Students (AHRS), she r ecently helped organize an event commemorating the Holodomor, an event which featured the film “Harvest of Despair” and a panel of distinguished scholars. Roxolana’s Master’s thesis, while initially prompted by her own family history, was further inspired by her interest in understanding today’s refugees and the obstacles they face. The thesis was shaped, in part, by interviews with Ukrainians in the diaspora — some in Denver, some in New York, and others in Argentina. She describes her time in Argentina as an “Aha moment,” which made her realize how fortunate she was to have had a childhood conducive to sustaining her s trong connection to her Ukrainian roots. It was in Argentina, which has a large ethnic - Ukrainian population that is supported by a proportionately wide base of Ukrainian institutions that she first realized how easily immigrants can lose their cultural ide ntity — the language disappears and the customs and traditions are perfunctorily observed and altered to accommodate the host country’s mores and rituals. It was a revelation, she explained, that saddened her while strengthening her resolve to remain true to the lessons learned as a child. Roxolana received her MA in November 2008, but views the degree as a prelude to a longer and more detailed exploration of the theme she chose for her Master’s thesis. The confluence of her experiences with today’s refugees as well as her interviews with refugees of a bygone era has made Roxolana eager to continue delving into the histories of other Ukrainian post - war immigrants. As our conversation drew to an end, she described her hope to expand her interview base by visit ing Canada, Australia, and other countries where Ukrainian displace persons or refugees settled after World War II. It is a lofty enterprise that will likely be approached with as much care and compassion and enthusiasm as w as accorded her previous work. — TSC
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