Scholar Stories
Undoubtedly Kyiv should be declared the cultural and spiritual center of Europe. With its superb ballet companies, orchestras, choirs and singers and performers, Kyiv could keep a visitor culturally busy for months. Add the golden, onion shape tops of the Orthodox churches, that shine all over the skyline of the city and you capture the essence of one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
I had a sense of it before I took the assignment in the spring of 2006 but I did not have a clue how rich would my personal life become during that period. There was no one evening that I had to stay in the university's two room apartment. “The Nutcracker,” “The Swan Lake,” “Spartacus,” Sulfids,” and “Giselle” were just a few of the ballet shows that I have attended. Music by Mozart, Bach, Rachmaninof, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven were just a few composers whose music has been played in the acoustically perfect music hall and the Church that had been converted to the House of Organ Music
My days were as busy. I have taught two to three classes to undergraduate and graduate students as well as to the members of the faculty. All together I have given forty hours of students' teaching, ten hours of Master classes to the members of the faculty and four public presentations in the University of Food Technology, Economic Institute in Uman, and KNUTD.
My audience was mostly interested in the free market economy principles of managing, motivating and compensating people and in the various aspects of the academic life in the USA. I have given lectures and presentations about diverse topics such as Motivating employees in a free market economy, Building employees compensation systems, Resume writing, and job interview, Starting your own business, Going international, Management principles at McDonald's, Business education in the USA, Brand building, and International marketing.
Ukraine is going through two revolutions at once. First, it is just coming out of decades of communist regime. Second it is trying to convert an agrarian society into a manufacturing and service society. People, who benefit from 1.6 computers per 100 citizens (as compared with 8.6 in China and 76 in the USA), are mostly getting their information about the USA from television where second rate US programs, mostly very violent (In cage free Kick-boxing matches that are limited to Pay per View in the USA), are shown on regular TV. People are intensively engaged in democracy building by protesting and demonstrating in front of the houses of power but they do not possess the tradition of democratic power negotiation. To a great extent government is still involved up to its neck in manipulating the market and most people receive most of their economic rewards from government.
Ukraine is engaged in exploring its identity. Many people resort to religion and tradition because these are the very last factors that dominated Ukraine before Communism took over. The alternatives practiced by many are free market symbols such as extreme consumption and ready made culture (music video clips).
The Fulbright program is an excellent device to disseminate information about the principles of democracy and free market to Ukraine's people. It is comparatively economical and yet an effective way to make a point. Disseminating information through computers donated by the US government, private companies and NGOs is yet another very effective way to help the people of Ukraine to find out more information about the USA and its democratic and social principles so that they could use their old beautiful cultural tradition to establish their new identity.
Every year around 10 American Scholars visit Ukrainian Universities within Fulbright Senior Specialists Program. This is a story written by one of them, Deborah S. Rosenfelt, about her experience at Mykolayiv Petro Mohyla Humanitarian University.
In March 2005, I was fortunate enough to visit Petro Mohyla University in Mykolayiv as a Senior Fulbright Specialist. My own background is in literature, but for many years now I have taught in the United States in interdisciplinary women's studies programs. I was invited to give a short course to fifth-year students on the subject, "Gender and Nation."
As I looked out at the engaged expressions of the students in my seminar, I was reminded of my graduate students in the United States. It seems to me that students in both the Ukraine and the United States are very serious, hard-working, thoughtful, and downright smart. Because some of the students who read this will be going to the United States on Fulbrights of their own, I have been asked to reflect a little on some of the differences in graduate education that might affect your experiences in the U.S.
First, there is perhaps more of an emphasis on theory in graduate schools in the United States than in Ukraine: literary theory, cultural studies, postmodern ideas about history, culture, and society, and so on. Some of this theoretical work is interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary); graduate study at least in the humanities in the United States tends often to cross disciplines. Sometimes, therefore, you will be assigned readings that seem unrelated to your specific project, and it will be your task to figure out the connections among diverse readings and ideas. The emphasis is more on analysis, and less on mastering specific bodies of knowledge. (My own background is in the humanities, so faculty from the sciences and even the behavioral and social sciences might possibly disagree!) There are fewer classes required in a year of study in the U.S. than in Ukraine, but assignments at the graduate level are very demanding, and much of your final grade will probably depend on a major research paper that draws original conclusions from your research.
Second, we had some very good class discussions in my seminar at Mykolayiv, but not everyone participated, perhaps because of differences in language skills. In the United States, perhaps even more than in Ukraine, you will be expected to participate in class discussions, and your professors and classmates will be patient with you if your English language skills are less than perfect. If you do not understand some of the languages or ideas, by all means go to your professor, or raise your hand in class and ask for help. American professors are required to hold office hours, and most of us really want to see our students personally and individually at that time—or in unscheduled sessions. We will even help you with writing papers if you need advice and editing—especially if you come and ask for help well before papers are due. (Not everyone in the United States is tolerant of heavily accented English, unfortunately. Americans are notoriously bad at languages, and many of us have a "tin ear"; you are FAR more linguistically adept than most Americans, many of whom speak and understand only one language, English!)
Third, as in Mykolayiv, the other graduate students in your cohort are your best source of both friendship and information. Get to know them, have study sessions with them, go out for pizza and beer. American graduate students, like students here, are often very busy, since many of them hold jobs as well as taking classes. Yet most will respond warmly to gestures of friendship. The friendships you make with other students and the relations you build with your professors will ultimately matter perhaps as much as your academic work. Certainly that has been true for my own experience as a Fulbright scholar in Ukraine, where the hospitality of my colleagues and my students has made my stay as deeply memorable as my time in the classroom.
