Thank you for asking about the USA/USA Dinner

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: Thank you for asking about the second annual USA/USA Dinner in the East Village. : The dinner was a significant improvement and expansion over last year. : Sixteen people were in attendance including myself. Three of our current newly arrived students from Enerhodar, Berdyansk and Kerch were present. They will be attending Brown, Lafayette Colleges on full scholarships. Also Emma Willard (a prep school) for two years. Two alumni were also present. Two alumni based in New York City did not attend. None of our scholarship winners has ever attended a college or university in the immediate New York City metropolitan area. So we have few students here in the metropolitan area. Some students had returned to college. Others had not yet arrived from Ukraine. : There was a representative from the Ukrainian Consulate here in New York City. Also in attendance was a representative from the European Union. www.euusa.org is emerging as a partner of the USA/USA Program. This not for profit entity networks students from the EU and also organizes educational events about the EU at Columbia, New York University and in New York City. We are planning mutual EU and Ukraine events in the future. : A major online editor from Ukraine was present to our pleasant surprise. Even the world’s leading consultancy, McKinsey and Co. firm had a representative there. A Ukrainian national working for them after obtaining a Harvard MBA was in attendance. He is in the process of conceptualizing a variety of projects with reference to Ukraine. He was looking for partners. Remarkably, he had been featured on the first page of the business section of the New York Times about nine months ago. : Three other students from Ukraine and a few members of the novoprybuli were in attendance. One came to ask my advice about returning to college. : Only one person from the “Diaspora” was present. He, like I, is a far outlier, married to an American and very distant from the Ukrainian-American community. I had invited tens of people from the Diaspora. No one came. : I am familiar with the disinterest of the Ukrainian American community towards students from Ukraine. At times it has bordered on suspicion. I would welcome any ideas. : The important fact is that we met some critically important people here in NYC and in Ukraine for the first time. So I expect some synergy from this dinner. I do not think that we are any closer to establishing roots within the Ukrainian community of the East Village. But we may emerge as a player here in the East Village. : Our dinner could be a real event next year. : I will write more. : Bohdan A. Oryshkevich : Founder and Coordinator : info@ukrainianscholarships.org : www.ukrainianscholarships.org