“Only a very specific set of circumstances qualify a potential student for help, and Alex, despite the nightmare of his situation, simply does not qualify for monetary help in the eyes of the U.S. Musgrove and Whitney have set up a GoFundMe, with all of the money going directly to Alex. Hodovanets said he’s applying for scholarships and financial aid, but it’s not yet clear what will come through. ![]() He plans to continue studying science, specifically biochemistry, at one of them this fall, he said.īut money for tuition and expenses has proved to be a huge obstacle. Ultimately, Hodovanets was accepted to the University of Illinois Chicago, as well as two community colleges: Harper College in Palatine and McHenry County College in Crystal Lake. “He just wants to be able to continue his education and keep his head down, just keep going, and that’s what his parents are hoping for, as well,” Musgrove said. Now, new rules are allowing him and other Ukrainians to stay in the country. Hodovanets’ main worries were his visa status and being able to stay in the United States. ![]() But they jumped into action this spring, helping him apply to schools and navigate paperwork and questions. Before this week, neither of them had met Hodovanets in person. Musgrove is based in suburban Wauconda, and Skaalerud lives near Knoxville, Tennessee. Robert Musgrove and Whitney Skaalerud work with Hodovanets’ father at a telecommunications company with offices around the world. Hodovanets was assisted by a school counselor - and by two people he’d never met before. And by March, it was late in the application season for him to do so. When it became obvious Hodovanets wouldn’t be able to return to Ukraine after finishing school this spring, he started doing everything he could to try to find a way to go to college in the United States.īecause he’d been planning to return to Ukraine at the end of the school year, he hadn’t applied to any American colleges. Credit: Provided Alex Hodovanets with his family, who have been separated after fleeing their home in Bucha, Ukraine during the Russian invasion If they had left Bucha “even a little bit later, maybe … yeah,” he said, his voice trailing off. Hodovanets said he and his family are lucky to be safe and, for now, out of harm’s way. Like all men in Ukraine younger than 60, he’s not allowed to leave the country. Hodovanets’ father, Igor, is living with his grandmother in Khmelnytskyi, about a five-hour drive from Kyiv. Hodovanets’ mother, Ira, and sister, Yaroslava, are living in Germany, and they hope to make their way to Portugal. Today, Hodovanets’ house in Bucha is “totally destroyed,” he said. His family fled the city at the beginning of the war, just before the Russians arrived. And Hodovanets’ hometown of Bucha was the site of a massacre of civilians by Russian soldiers. “I have this kind of mindset: If you finish education in America, it will be easier to go anywhere in the world to find a job, to find what you will do,” he said.īut when Hodovanets completed his studies in Minnesota earlier this month, he didn’t go home. His passion is science, and he hopes to one day open his own research lab. Croix Lutheran Academy, where he brushed up on his English and continued studying biology and chemistry. ![]() ![]() Last summer, Hodovanets moved to the Twin Cities area to complete an additional year of study at St. Hodovanets, 17, had already finished high school in Kyiv, commuting on public transit each day from his family’s home in nearby Bucha. UKRAINIAN VILLAGE - Alex Hodovanets only expected to stay through the school year when he moved to the United States last year.
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