“Just as universities make great cities, a great city makes a great university” - these words were said by Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley upon laying the cornerstone for UIC.

University of Illinois at Chicago embraces its mission of teaching, research, service, and economic development through hundreds of academic programs, community service initiatives, and research endeavors.

UIC is heavily engaged throughout the world in collaborations involving education, research, and public service. To these ends UIC maintains international agreements for collaborations which combine the efforts of universities, foundations, government agencies, the organizations of civil society, and the business community.

I had a chance to briefly visit the University of Chicago which was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, who later described it “the best investment I ever made.”

I have just spent one semester of studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago - these still is time ahead of me. J

However, what I find really exciting and positively challenging about my program is that I combine studying and teaching at my University, at the Department of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.

It was a high honor for me to be offered a teaching assistantship at the Department, and I gladly accepted it.

So, apart from studying my major - Hispanic Studies and taking classes of Political Science I also teach basic Spanish to undergraduate students and really enjoy that.

I can definitely say what many persons in my surrounding find unusual - when answering the question of my friends and colleagues what is my major I say that I am studying Hispanic Studies being Ukrainian many persons find it quite surprising. Then I explain that I have always admired the Spanish language and Hispanic culture and traditions, and that it is quite popular and widespread in my native country.

A funny situation that I can recall is probably the one that happened in a store in a Chicago Mexican neighborhood called Pilsen where I did some grocery shopping - I was speaking Spanish with the sales assistant, and she asked me where I had learned it. After I replied that actually in my native country - in Ukraine the lady nodded understandingly: “Ah, es porque Espa?a queda cerquita!” (Oh, it's because Spain is just round the corner!)

Something that I also find very funny is that many people (99% of my acquaintances) in Chicago - the Windy City! think that Ukraine is a very cold northern country. I tell them that basically the climate in Ukraine is very much like that of Illinois or the north of the United States - of course it cannot be compared with that of California or Texas, but it is not the North pole either!

However, they still keep repeating (it is January now): “It must feel like summer for you!”

I do keep in touch with my research institution - the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The topic of my research is in the field of International Relations and encompasses the U.S. - Ukraine relations. That is why I find it really useful and fortunate to take Political Science courses at the University of Illinois at Chicago.