Ukrainian college student looking to transfer abroad, continue education

Image via Anna Kolesnik

Ukrainian college student Anna Kolesnik is working with SUNY Geneseo Associate Professor of Art History Alla Myzelev to transfer to foreign universities in order to continue her education abroad and escape the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She has been applying to universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom while continuing her education online in Ukraine. 

Kolesnik lived and attended university in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and the target of attacks by the Russian military. In an interview over text via Viber, a social media app popular in Eastern Europe, she said she was forced to relocate to western Ukraine when the war began. 

“After the war started, we had to relocate to Lviv region,” Kolesnik said. “At first my day to day life changed so much because we had to move a lot. Then I started volunteering most of the days, I volunteered at the Lviv railway station in the medical-psychological help department. We basically patrolled the station administering first aid or psychological help to refugees. After my studies restarted it went back to ‘almost normal.’ My university started having online classes again about 3 weeks into the war, and it was familiar because 90% of all my university studies were online. The only thing that made it more difficult is the fact that I had to leave all my books and notebooks at home since my university doesn’t really provide any online resources for us to use.” 

She said that she feels that she needs to transfer abroad to get her degree due to the in-person lab requirements.

“I’m majoring in medicine, and I am currently applying to be transferred into a foreign university. I believe that getting a medical degree online is almost impossible because you at least have to be able to do some lab work, and I, as well as most people in Ukraine, don’t see this war ending any time soon unfortunately,” she said. 

Kolesnik said that she was considering transferring abroad even before the war started, and that she thought most Ukrainian students are not considering transferring.

She said, “At least judging from my friends, most students don’t think about transferring. From what I see, most students who are looking to transfer now were considering that option even before war. [Studying abroad] was always my end goal, but I was planning to get four years of education in Ukraine and then get my masters elsewhere.”

Myzelev, whose efforts in Geneseo to aid refugees in Ukraine have been covered in a previous Lamron article, has been in contact with Kolesnik in order to help her navigate college applications in the United States. Kolesnik said that most universities have already closed their application process for this academic year but hopes that some might still consider her application. 

Kolesnik said that she is not nervous about the prospect of culture shock when moving to a foreign country, but that she is not comfortable leaving her family behind in the middle of a war. 

“I do not feel 100% comfortable with leaving my family, but it’s more like they really want me to leave. They definitely feel more comfortable with me being out of the country and farther from danger. The rest of my family is planning to stay,” she said. 

Conflict in the country shows no signs of stopping with peace talks stalling once again. Per the New York Times, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said on Tuesday that the continued support of Ukraine from western nations like the United States is effectively sabotaging peace talks and encouraging Ukraine to continue the conflict. 

“They will continue that line by filling Ukraine with weapons,” Lavrov said in a Moscow meeting with United Nations officials. “If that continues, negotiations won’t yield any result.”

With the war showing no signs of de-escalation, millions of Ukrainians are fleeing the country. Per the United Nations Internal Organization for Migration, over 5 million Ukrainians have left the country. Millions more young Ukrainians like Kolesnik are considering doing the same.