Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT)

 Sofiia Tarasiuk

After seeing The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine play, presented at Brandeis in October 2023, I interviewed Sofiia Tarasiuk. Sofiia is from Volodymyr, Ukraine, and was a second-year MBA student at the Brandeis International Business School at that time. I was excited to hear from Sofiia her reflections of her time at Brandeis, her family and life in Ukraine, creative initiatives at Brandeis highlighting the Ukrainian experience, and her hopes and wishes for the future. Something Sofiia continued to highlight was the importance of sharing Ukrainian stories and voices. The following excerpts are Sofiia’s words from our conversation.

TIME AT BRANDEIS

About reflections on what she has learned while being at Brandeis

You should be always open to new opportunities. And to have enough courage to accept them. And sometimes opportunities here can threaten you, but still, I always have to accept them. Because they can give me, like, they can create a lot of doors which you can open in your life and continue studying, looking for a job, and creating your own future.

That's I think my main lesson because for me, for a girl, who I was two years ago, I couldn't imagine that I moved to another continent to gain a scholarship here, to participate in the immersion trip to India this January, to participate in different contests here, to implement my exhibition here - if somebody could tell me that two years ago, I would be laughing so loud, like, ‘no, no, no, that's not about me, I'm not that person who can do everything on that list,’ but now I'm sitting here and I understand that I changed a lot, but I changed because I wanted to change. And I'm saying that because now I see my friends who stayed in my country and who, in some way they survive there, in some way they're trying to create their own life under new circumstances there, but still not everybody is ready even to move from the country and start everything from the very beginning. So, I think that to be open to new challenges in your life, new opportunities, that's what I learned.

About feeling like “living two different lives” while in the US

I think that I continue to live two different lives, but I already learned how to accept that. So, for that moment when I told that in my previous interview, that was a shocking moment, but now it’s okay. Because I still have a strong connection with my family and friends, and I have a lot of talks with them every week. We communicate in different chats, we discuss different Ukrainian news, and at the same time, in the morning you can read some news, chat a little bit with your family, and in one hour you're already in the class, and you, you know, talk about some marketing stuff here with your, with your classmates in English.

So, now it's just okay. Of course, I wish to have only one life in my country, but everything changed, and I just learned how to find benefits from that. Not focus a lot on negative aspects because, you know, we have a lot of bad situations, bad effects, bad news, a lot of bad things in our world and, the only one thing we can change is how we perceive that. So, if we choose to notice only positive sides and try to focus on them, I will choose that. So, what I really do, I try to find something positive in every moment.

FAMILY AND LIFE IN UKRAINE

About life during early days of war and family in Ukraine

I was born in the west of Ukraine, in the little town called Volodymyr, which is almost on the border with Poland. And [my family] stayed in my native region because there we don't have any active bombings. So, we had some bombings at the beginning. We even heard, like, our windows were moving in our house a little bit. And the first month we, we spent a lot of time in our, like, homemade bomb shelter. It's like a place where we usually save, like, potato, carrots, and a kind of wine. Uh, yeah, so they stayed there.

My parents have nice jobs at school. They are teachers and they try to continue to teach teens in my town. They also founded an organization for refugees in my native town. For the first month we had around 3,000 refugees in my town. And sometimes somebody went abroad, somebody returned to their houses. But still, there are some people who don't have a place where to return, or, uh, some of the territories are still occupied, and my parents help them with humanitarian aid. They apply for different funding and grants from other international organizations. They also created a special space for children who are refugees, so they can study there. They have, like, chairs, tables, everything they need. Uh, they also create cultural events to show what we have in our region, to show that we have a place where very famous Ukrainian poets were born. We show Ukrainian heritage, and they learn how to, what to do with their mental health because in Ukraine, before that, nobody talked about mental health issues. It was like oh, that's not important, but now we all see the influence and that everybody actually needs help with that. How to deal with the fact that you don't have your home anymore, that some of your relatives or close family are dead already. Um, and how even to start your life from, from the beginning. That's hard. Not everybody can do that. Especially when people are poor, they don't have any money, they don't even understand how to start a new life in a new area.

So, that's about my parents, and my brother, he lived with my parents a little bit, but now he moved to the western city of Lviv, where he can have more opportunities to study and to work. He's younger. He's 20 years old now. We still have a very strong connection. We have every week Zoom calls with my family, with my brother and parents. But with my family, we talk almost every day, even just for several minutes. If everything is okay, what is new, something like that. With my brother, we can just chat. I always ask him for a piece of advice. He's younger, but sometimes he can just give me very nice questions to think about, so, I really appreciate that.

About Ukrainian heroes

That's, that can be a very long list actually, because I think all people who are now in Ukraine, who decided to stay within the country, they are all heroes. I can start from my parents and continue with people who are on the front line. I can also include a lot of mothers who decided to go abroad with their children just to give normal childhood for their children. That's also a very big step for them, and not very easy choice to do. I'm very proud of my peers who continue to study within Ukraine. And, yeah, there's a lot of people. And of course, I'm very proud of every soldier who is on the front line, because, I don't know, I always ask myself if I were in their shoes, if I stayed and decided to dedicate my life for this war. So, I think that Ukraine is a, maybe it's very selfish to say that Ukraine is a country of heroes, but I think a lot of people have a lot of nice stories to tell how they, in their own way, on different levels, local, personal, or global, they influence, and they create really nice impact.

CREATIVE INITIATIVES AT BRANDEIS

About general reactions from “The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine”

I was excited that here at Brandeis we had a chance to talk about Ukraine through the arts and I think that art is a really strong instrument, which we can use now here and through emotions to show people that we have such terrible situation in the world, and we just can't, can't see on that like a normal situation. Uh, and actually in Ukraine we have a lot of news every day about some deaths, about losses on the front line and we, already inside the country, we learned how to live with that - that's okay - now we don't have a strong reaction on that news. We can understand more about the war inside the country through the emotions and I think the same works in other countries for whom war in Ukraine is something very far from this place and for people who don't understand all aspects of this war. So, I was really thankful that people here organized this event, and I was really excited to see a lot of people coming for that event.

About the performance. Um, I have some weird maybe reaction because I was seeing that artists were trying to show that emotions, sadness, understanding that some people lost their homes, they have to move, they have to be divided, their families should be divided because fathers should defend their country, mothers should go abroad or in other places. But I still think that for people who didn't see the war in a reality, it's hard to show that emotions. And it was interesting, uh, that actors were trying to talk a lot about all of that situations, but I compare my experience talking with refugees and people who really saw the war. They heard bombing, they saw how their houses were ruined and usually people are not ready to talk about that. They want to forget. And I just think that this aspect can be improved in this performance.

About what resonated most from “The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine”

What resonated that, uh, this hard topic, when you understand that people can lose their lives, they can lose their homes and families, but still people find the situation to laugh a little bit, and it was nice to hear the stories about hamster, that the child was trying to take care of that hamster, and that was nice moment, which really shown the real atmosphere of the first days of the war. Because it was, I compare my experience first weeks in Ukraine. When you go through the news, you see, oh my God, Russians occupied some territories near Kyiv. They are so close to Kyiv. They occupy some parts of other, Kherson region, other regions. And in one way you see tons of memes, because one woman decided to throw the bottle with cucumbers to the drone, to the Russian drone, and she ruined that just with a bottle of some vegetables, like that's crazy, but people do that. Sometimes, uh, I saw videos, like, people in occupied territories, without any weapon, they tried to stop Russian military forces, to go, uh, to the tank, and just to stop it with their bodies, and you see that courage of people, and I think that some elements of that were shown in the performance, and I really felt, yeah, that's, that was in my life, that I saw, and, yeah, that's now happening on the scene.

About what was hardest to watch in “The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine”

It was hard to listen to the poem in Ukrainian language. Because every time when you hear like English, English, you still think not about Ukrainian war because language means a lot in this situation.

And when you hear the poem... you, you feel like you want to cry.

About hopes for “The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine”

I just want to see this performance everywhere, because I think people, through emotions, they can understand us as Ukrainians, and they can understand why even on the second year of this war we still continue to fight and defend our Earth. So, I think that everybody should, should see that.

About involvement with the ‘Unissued Diplomas’ Project

Before the war, I worked with a charity organization, and when the war started, we provided humanitarian aid for Ukrainians around the country. Before the moving to US, I had to stop working for that organization and when I came here, I felt that I do nothing for my country. I mean, I can donate my personal money for some organizations, but I can't do something more important. And I had a tradition to create a plan for a year, what I have to do. And one, uh, sentence there was, I need to create a fundraising event about Ukraine and actually for one month I forgot about that. And once I saw the story of my friend that she is organizing unissued diploma in her university, and I just chatted with her and asked how I can join and maybe how I can do it in my university. And then I learned more about unissued diplomas project that it was going to be held in 50 universities around the world. And I decided that Brandeis also should join that initiative. It was challenging because I had to find like, uh, money, how to create that event, how to print everything, find a place, ask if university is willing to have this event here. So, yeah, there were, there were a lot of challenges, but every time when I was thinking if I really have to do that, I was comparing myself with the people on the front line because they rescue their own lives every day, every minute. Here, I just need to donate my time to create that. So, that's why I joined that team who were organizing different events. Uh, in different universities and I found one printing center. I told my story again. I used that instrument there. And they helped me to print everything for free. Here I found some people who helped me to find, like, a place where I'm allowed to hang my posters, because I learned that not in every building you can do that. For example, at Shapiro Center you can't just hang everything on walls. I learned a lot about the university. I had a chance to, to make that exhibition, uh, at Mandel Center and also at the business school. So, a lot of people learned about that, and we had like a QR code where people could donate some money. I don't know exactly how much people from university donated, but in general from different universities around the world we gathered more than $10,000 and we bought some special aid equipment for people in Ukraine. And so, that was a very nice initiative and I'm proud that I decided to do that.

And again, that was an exhibition about stories. About people like me, who before the war were just students, who had plans for their life, who wanted to have an amazing career in their life, but the war decided to take their life, and that's a horrible thought that, that people could sit with you in classes [before], but they can't do it anymore. So that was a really powerful project, and yeah, I'm happy that people are paying attention to that.

I was just saying that that was a very sensitive topic and I worry a lot if people are ready to accept that. Because it's easy to talk about something funny, something nice, something positive. But talking about death, that's not easy.

HOPES AND DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE

About the importance of continuing the conversation about Ukraine and telling stories

That's a very hard question because I see that a lot of people are tired of this war and it's hard to read bad news all the time about Ukraine, so that’s a question not only about foreigners, that's a question also about Ukrainians who want to see more positivity in their lives, but still we have war and every day we should remember that we, we don't have a good situation. I don't know what we can do here. I think that unless stories can convince to support and continue to support because every time when I see that, for example, we lost, I don't know, 20 lives today on the front line, just random number, that’s like, that's already not a shocked news for me. It's like, okay, we lost. But when I read the news that today we lost a life of one soldier whose family was killed six months ago on the birthdays of his daughter, this story touched me a lot, like, it's so hard even to understand, like, how that was for him to, to accept the fact that his family was dead and then to join the military forces.

And this, like, two different news. First one, you, again, you lost lives, and here you lost lives, but when you know more about those people, you feel that, okay, I need to do something right now. I need to donate money for any foundations who can help Ukraine. I can spread information, at least in my social media. I can just do something. So, I think that here we just need to continue to talk about the war and tell a lot of stories. And, we have tons of different stories. You know, when I came here, a lot of people were asking my story and were trying to record the interview with me, but I, I felt uncomfortable with that because my story is not special. I thought it's not special because I read a lot of stories about people who are very brave, who did much more than me. Who still stay in Ukraine, who helped a lot, who donate a lot, who really, they do great job. And I'm just escaped the country and just started my life from, from everything new for me. So, yeah, I think that I felt that my story is not special, compared with other Ukrainians, but compared with people here, I understand that... There is something special even in my story.

I just understand that my story is a nice instrument how I can show the life of Ukrainians. Not about politics side, front lines, something about just people who had a nice life before in their country and how everything changed in one moment. So now I try to, to use it for, for advantage for Ukrainians. And to show people that, you see, yeah, I'm that person from Ukraine, but my life changed, but I still have courage and people in my country, they still will fight. And if you can, support.

About what she wants others to know and perception of Ukraine

I got myself with the idea that it would be nice here at Brandeis to show the beauty of Ukraine. I mean, not only the nature and beautiful sides. I would like to show that we have really creative people, we have really nice business companies which created really nice ideas, that we have a lot of artists, musicians, very talented people. I would like to emphasize on that and show that another country tries to just kill all of that and just to maybe explain more for what we are fighting. Not only for freedom, because it's something, you can't imagine like freedom. It can mean a lot for everybody. But maybe it would be nice to show for other people what it means for us, for Ukrainians. That we want to have opportunity to talk in our native language. We want to create literature in our native language. We want to create projects about our heritage and about our history and we want to talk about our heroes, our Ukrainian heroes. Yeah, I think it would be nice just to talk in general about what is Ukraine.

Not only that, I see that now people just, they have like this equation, Ukraine equals war. I want to change a little bit that and to show that Ukraine is that, yes, but we are fighting because we have reasons why we do that.

About hopes for projects in Ukraine

Talking about project in Ukraine, which I would like to do, I would like to do something about education. That’s because I'm looking for a long-term direction and I've read one really nice opinion, I don't remember who said that, that if you want to ruin the country, first you need to ruin the educational system and then you can ruin other aspects. So, for me now, it's a really big question how to give Ukrainian children really nice education in Ukraine and I think it would be nice to establish some collaboration with different universities and schools from other countries with Ukraine because I see that we have strong influence of the war on educational system. I even can't imagine how children now can study in the bomb shelters. And they have a lot of health issues like sleeping with very often alarm systems at night because of bombing. That's hard, and yeah, it also influences teachers who should teach, and I think that children and teachers, they are losing the motivation to teach and study. So, I think that in this way, I would like to do something connected with education and collaboration with others.

About future plans and hopes

You know, in my native language, we have a proverb, and if I translate it correctly, it sounds like, ‘Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.’ So, for my future, I have three variants what to do. The first variant is to stay here in the US and try to find a job. The second variant is to return to the European continent and try to find a job there. In Warsaw, or Germany, you know, something like that - that's why now I try to learn German, so to have more opportunities for my future. The third variant is to come back to my country and try to do something there.

But the third variant is not very reachable, I think, because it's still not very safe. And if I have a chance to stay somewhere where it’s much better from the safety side, I will do that. This summer I had a lot of conversations with my parents, and it's sad to understand that they want me to be somewhere else, not in Ukraine, because they worry about my life.

So, that’s my variants. I had a hope that this war can be stopped soon, but talking about facts, I don't think that it will be in several years.

Kamila Haieva

Kamila Haieva is a 27-year-old international student from a town outside of Kyiv, studying at the Brandeis International Business School. She is passionate about her studies, her family, making an impact on the lives of others, and running. On October 31, 2023, I sat down with her to hear her story.

About Coming to Brandeis from Kyiv

It’s actually a long story. So, I already have some degrees in product management and a bachelor’s degree. During the process when I worked for the International Organization for Migration, I set a goal for myself that I should try to get an international degree because I noticed that others had. I found out about Brandeis through a program in Ukraine and was trying to understand if it was the right fit for me. It’s important to be sure when you’re applying to a university that you know what you want. For me, this was obvious. I tried to figure out what courses Brandeis had and the most important thing I really value is diversity. It’s really amazing and cool. We have so many students from different countries, like oh wow! Someone also let me know that there are Ukrainians who I could get in touch with and when I realized it was a good fit, I applied. I got what I needed to apply and made my way here! I came on the 21st of August.

About Adaptation

I live about 20 minutes from campus and in Kyiv, I actually walk a lot because there are a lot of traffic jams. That’s why I feel very grateful to be here, usually waking in Kyiv takes hours. I have five roommates. We are a very diverse group and get together in the evening and share our language and other common things about our culture. It’s my second time being in the U.S. and even though it was really scary at first, adapting has become easier. I just try to accept the situation-- it’s easy to compare people, food, and infrastructure. For now, I am enjoying the diversity and being able to work with people with different perspectives. I don’t sleep enough but hope to manage this better later. Maybe it’s because I took a lot of credits, but I believe when it comes to time management you can manage everything if you really want to. I try to prioritize what I need to and think it’s really important to have a good balance.

About Running 

In school I used to run the 100 meters in tenth and eleventh grade. After University I started to run for myself and have been with Nike Run club for almost 8 years now. We participate in different events and I really wish I could be there still cheering them on. I also competed in a marathon in California three weeks ago and they did a 52k run. I didn’t prepare enough for it but was happy that there were mountains which gave me energy. I’ve basically run all my life. I will also add that running helped me a lot during the war. I am now qualified for the Boston marathon.

Running and the War

When you are emotionally unstable and so much is going on and you can’t even be sure about tomorrow, running makes you feel stable and emotionally free. The first time I ran and there was a shelter in place warning for bombing, I was running. I felt empty inside about emotions and just continued running in the forest. I just knew that nobody would bomb the forest, maybe buildings. Maybe it was stupid, but it felt logical. Sitting in a shelter felt like a waste of time, finding time for fresh air was more important.

About “The Clear Blue Skies”

The play was definitely a little while ago. I am trying to recall my emotions. About not having music and lights -- I believe a play can be good when the actors have strong feelings to share. I feel neutral about music. I was reminded in the start of the play about how I felt in Kyiv, when I first heard about the bombing it felt like I was dreaming. I called my mom to say Mom, the war has started, and she started to cry because of the bad news. I didn’t know what to do because it was supposed to be a really simple day as I was going into work. The play reminded me about all these feelings. It was interesting about how American actors took on the situation in the play and I felt really reminded of the situation. I’m not sure if other Americans watching felt the same.
The play may have seemed simple, but for Ukrainians it was much more than that. Not everything was understandable for people who did not experience what we did.

About Family and Friends

It’s hard to explain because Kyiv is one big city but my mom lives outside of Kyiv. She lives in a small town and it’s definitely a less dangerous place. Some of my guy friends were on the front lines, some of them have already died. When you first hear that somebody of your age died in the war and somebody who you know and supports you, it’s hard. It’s hard to talk about it. When it happens again, and again, and again, you feel like you won’t be as vulnerable. But you are -- because it’s different people with different experiences who had a different impact on you. They all hold a different place in your heart.

About Kamila’s work

I worked for the International Organization for Migration where I was working with displaced individuals. It’s an agency of the United Nations. I really appreciated the opportunity because I always dreamed of working for the United Nations, but of course not in these conditions in terms of Ukraine. But still, this position gave me a sense of life because it was humanitarian aid and gave me more sense in my life because I could help people. I was responsible for helping sanitize water and we had an engineer in our department. I was a project manager and we communicated with the government and different organizations. We checked to see if we could help people and also helped those who were disabled. We’d give them different care packages with towels, shampoo, and sometimes antiseptics. There are no infrastructure systems for water there, so our job was to renew them.

Closing Remarks

I sometimes can’t believe I’m here. Like ok Kamila, you didn’t die? And now I’m just worried about my studies? Every day, in the morning and the evening, I wish for my friends to be safe. I’m sorry for those who did not get to fully experience life. I know so many of my friends wish to travel. I suffer inside because my country is suffering. I wish for Ukraine to win soon, but it looks hard -- really hard. I just want all my family and friends to have peace and wish Ukraine prosperity.

Yuliia Stelmakh

In October, 2023, Brandeis hosted a production of The Clear Blue Skies: Diaries from Ukraine, a play that shares the words and experiences of a group of young people from Ukraine during the war. After seeing the play, I spoke to Yuliia Stelmakh, a Ukrainian student at Brandeis’ International Business School, about her thoughts on the play and about her personal experiences. Yuliia told me about her life as a student at Brandeis, as a Ukrainian impacted by the war, and as someone who cares strongly about her family and friends. Below are excerpts from our conversation:

 

On The Clear Blue Skies play:

When the play started, I took myself back to that date on the 24th of February. I remembered how everything started and it made me cry because I put everything that my family felt at that moment on myself. But during the play, I really appreciated the actors trying to show everything like it was because everything that they depicted and showed was really how Ukrainians felt. The things they showed were similar to what happens in real life. Many families left Ukraine, and it was tough for them. They had to start their lives over in new countries, which was hard.

To be honest, I think nobody will be able to deeply comprehend what Ukrainians really feel. Only Ukrainians will understand it. And of course, before the war in our country, even I didn't understand how it is to live in the country where you have war. However, only Ukrainians can truly sense and truly know what's happening in their country. So, for example, this Ukrainian actor, I really believed her.

On the transition to Boston

It was easy. I expected it to be more difficult. So, my first month was really smooth and I made friends easily here. I have really nice roommates and we feel at home in our house. I also have really nice classmates and I really like the area I live around. But now, in the last few weeks, I really miss my home because of two things. I really want to be with my family because we lost one family member, and the other reason is for my studies. It's really hard, and I need help, especially from my family. My friends support me, which is good, but getting support from parents is different. They try to help when I call them, but what I really need is to hug them and feel that warmth at home. Overall, I'm happy to be here now. I can go to bed peacefully, knowing I can sleep well without worrying about air raids or similar things.

On weekly traditions

Every weekend, on Saturday or Sunday, we went to the park with our dog, and we took tea or coffee, or ice cream if it was summer and we would just walk and talk a lot. It was also a tradition every evening with my family to have dinner together and tell each other everything that would happen throughout the day. And now I really miss it. But with my roommates we do the same every evening. My roommate told me that last year it wasn't like that, but now every evening we tell each other what happened throughout the day. And we share our different traditions and teach each other about our cultures.

On finding out about the war initially

I remember that I didn't hear how my parents woke up. I woke up because of my alarm. And usually, every time when you wake up, you open your phone. However, on this particular day, I heard a commotion outside our apartment, which seemed too early, as my father usually takes our dog for a walk around seven. And then I opened my phone and I just started reading and everyone was like: “Did you hear that Kyiv was bombed?” And I was like, what's going on? And then I opened my door to my room. I saw my father and asked him what was going on, and he told me that the war started. My mom is a manager in a pharmacy, so she went to work. And it was crazy because it was so crowded because everybody panicked and tried to buy everything. In the evening, my mom returned from work and I was like, What will we do? A lot of people were just driving away from the city. We decided the first night we would stay home and then we would see. 
The first night, I heard the first explosions because part of the rocket hit the house in our area nearby. It was so huge the sound and we were sleeping in one bed because we were afraid. And I was like oh my god, we should run somewhere, like to the shelter, but my parents calmed me down. In the morning we understood that we cannot stay anymore in Kyiv because it was becoming dangerous. In the evening, we packed a lot of suitcases and we put our little home in our suitcases and drove to the west of Ukraine to my grandparents. Usually, it takes us three or four hours to get to them but that day it was more than 11 hours because there were heavy traffic jams just to get out of Kyiv because everybody wanted to leave the capital. When we left Kyiv and we were in the west, I felt more safe. And I felt calm. But still for the first months we were just sitting and reading the news about what was going on.

On how people outside of Ukraine can help

We are lucky that people are still talking about Ukraine. When the war started, more people knew about our country. I think before, some people didn't even know where our country was on the map. I really appreciate people's help. But we still should remember that people are dying every day in Ukraine, and we need to donate money to make us closer to the end of the war. It's hard witnessing daily turmoil and constant unrest. There are no peaceful days. So even if you're broke, you should still remember that the war is going on. And you need to try to put some effort into stopping it, like donating or sharing information about it. There are various ways to contribute because, as I mentioned, almost every family has lost someone in this war—a relative or a friend. I strive to remain optimistic, but I also understand that this won't end in a month; it can last for years. And we need to do everything possible, to help our soldiers help our country to be closer to victory, to be closer to the end of this terrible war.