[aaus-list] Harvard Yale and Princeton and what I do not like about Ukraine

[Bohdan Oryshkevich]

Dear Friends:
   
  In order to find student capable of entering Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, we have developed a very blunt instrument.  This year we sent out letters to 2717 schools in Ukraine inviting applications.  We also sent out 110 letters to Mala Akademiya Nauks and to libraries, etc.  Finally, we were fortunate to get by accident, over 300 names of high school students from Ukraine studying in the USA for a year on the FSA/FLEX program here. 
   
  We have 119 registrants from 22 oblasts for this summer's seminar.  This year we have 21 students registered from towns smaller than 25,000 inhabitants.  Our deadline is June 15 and we expect about 160 registrations.  This should translate into about 120 complete applications.  Of these about 12 will have the capability (if not always the determination and industry) to earn a scholarship to a top college.
   
  We have very rigorous requirements: transcripts for the last four years, school and friend recommendations, a biography, career plans, five favorite books, an essay on a topic chosen by the student, and the essay "What I do not like about Ukraine and how I would change it.  We look for critical thinking of the highest sort.  
   
  We also require that students take a TOEFL like exam.  This year we are also administering a GRE exam in math for our aspiring students.  We used to give the SAT.  The SAT and GRE are translated into Ukrainian.  All testing takes place in oblast centers around Ukraine which our very capable Executive Director, Yevheniya Krutko, is coordinating from NYC.  Until this year I used to do this almost all myself. 
   
  Then there are interviews in Ukraine by our volunteer students and finally from New York City.  On the basis of all this information we finally select the students for our seminar right here in New York City.  You are welcome to come to our office on Wall Street and help us read the applications.  
   
  This year we required a different kind of essay.  It is:  "What I do not like about Ukraine and how I would change it."
   
  This is one of the first such essays received.  This one came by e-mail to my mailbox.
   
  This young man has reasonably good English.
   
  He has given me permission to post it here.
   
  Thank you for your attention.
   
  I have to go back to reading applications. 
   
  Very truly yours,
   
  Bohdan A. Oryshkevich  
  Founder, USA/USA 
   
   
  Denis Bastov, Chernihiv Ukraine
  16.5 years old
  Serednya Skola #1
   
                                The Main Problem of Ukraine
   
  In my opinion, most Ukrainians are not satisfied enough with the quality of living in their country. They face a great deal of problems every day and cannot find the way to solve them all. That is the time when they start searching for the source of their misery accusing the government, the president, different parties, factions and other authorities of the bad conditions they force our society to. As far as I am concerned, I reject vigorously such sorts of complaints about our low standards of living. And analyzing the roots of all the problems of the contemporary Ukraine I have arrived at the conclusion that it is our people themselves.
   
  The main peculiarities of our modern mentality appeared several decades ago. Our country was under control of the Soviet Union for almost one century. At that time our parents were taught to be fully contented with the state and cost of living in the USSR. Not a single word which contradicted with the policy, ideology and the government itself could slip out otherwise the person who dared to say it could be immediately blamed for his hostile persuasions and declared the enemy of the nation. And they lived with no right of freedom of speech and thoughts, depending mainly on the whims of authorities.
   
  1991 Ukraine got its independence from totalitarian communistic regime. The iron curtain between East and West collapsed. And everything in our country has changed and evolved to the new level of development. Everything but not the people’s mentality. Unfortunately
 We still keep silent when we are to express our ideas and give our government a perfect opportunity to lead us the way they wish as if we were blind. I feel confident that we have to take control of the power in the country and exert influence over our authorities in order to make them perform political steps which would be beneficial to our state and especially its residents. We should at last realize that we live in a new democratic Ukraine and have to learn and obtain moral and social values from other advanced European countries; we should embark on the path of more progressive way of development. And it is the duty of every person to think about the future of our state. This conclusion can be summed up by
 a quotation from T. Edison who said, “The paramount task of the civilization is to teach a person to think”.
   
  In my opinion, we will soon come to the renovated perception of the role of every single person in the governing of the state and channel all the efforts to make our life better. The major aim of every citizen is to approach this time as quickly as possible. And the first steps in this undertaking could be the improvements of the educational system, spread of propaganda and agitation of new European lifestyle in mass media, etc. I watched a serious journalistic program about positive aims and tasks of the NATO on our national TV a week ago. It seemed convincing to me. But this was only one documentary. Unfortunately, there are too few of them broadcasted nowadays. In my opinion, we should work much, hard and patiently in this field and do not leave the chosen democratic way. 
   
  Taking everything into account, I would like to express my hope that the Ukrainian community will evolve to understanding its essential effect on the country’s development and will take all the necessary measures pursuing the ultimate and ambitious purpose to advance our state in the shortest terms. 
   
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