A Plea for Visibility By Ukrainian-American Student

Source: Source: Elizabeth-Dotsenko '22

One student describes the homeland where she grew up. She spent her time with her family in the city that demonstrated the diverse culture of the land with its countryside nearby filled with small farmhouses with cows and chickens close to the winding river. The fond memories of growing up in a place like this stick with Elizabeth Dotsenko closely.

Now, these memories of growing up in Ukraine have become bittersweet for Dotsenko.

“It was genuinely one of my favorite places, and I can't imagine thinking that I can't go back there,” Dotsenko describes her home in Borshchahivka, Ukraine.”It's genuinely heartbreaking and I don't think it actually sunk into my heart that I can't go back there.” 

Actively involved in the Marist Community as a member of Delta Epsilon Mu, the co-ed pre-health fraternity, and webmaster for the Marist Global Health Society, Dotsenko is soon to graduate with a biomedical degree with minors in philosophy and chemistry. 

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Dotsenko has been collecting donations from around campus that she drives down to New York City to deliver to the donation drop-off sites These donations go towards organizations like Razom for Ukraine, Sunflowers for Peace and Voices of Children. 

On campus, she raised $1,000 dollars for an organization called Project Hope that provides humanitarian aid for Ukrainians. 

Although there has been much support from the Marist Community during the brutality of the war, Dotsenko has yet to have a proper platform to talk about the situation facing Ukrainians.

The largest campus event thus far to raise awareness was the vigil held just after the war began on March 1. Dotsenko wanted the opportunity to say a few words about the situation facing Ukrainians including her family and friends living there now, but to no avail. “What I do have to say is that when we held the vigil for Ukraine, I emailed President Weinman. He never responded to my email,” Dotsenko said.

Dotsenko’s email stated that she is involved with several clubs and organizations on campus raising funds for organizations providing aid to Ukraine. She asked to meet President Weinmen to potentially speak at vigil about her fundrasing and express her personal thoughts on the war. Considering other sources, she asked Brother Frank on her request to speak at the event. He told her the service is “exclusively [for] prayer.” 

Dotsenko says that she understands where the event organizers were coming from as this is their event that they have control over. 

“As someone who’s very directly affected by the situation who has friends and family there I have to check up on every morning to make sure they are okay,” she said. “The fact that I’m not being allowed to even talk and encourage people to help out, it feels like the distance that’s already been put in the situation is only being exaggerated in a way.”

Opposite to Marist, the Vassar College students’ vigil had the opportunity to make a statement and express their feelings during the event, which Dotsenko feels she wishes she could have done at Marist given that she is a Ukrainian-American student. 

Dotsenko has not let this slight challenge deter her away from what matters to her most. 

While Dotsenko is doing work here in the U.S to provide aid to her homeland, her mother has been doing her own efforts on the ground in Ukraine to protect her family. Valerie and three of her cousins live just outside of Kyiv. As the invasion began, Valerie forced one of the three cousins and her 11 year old child to flee with her to Poland from Odessa initially after her husband stayed to fight for Ukraine. Unfortunately, the two other cousins were stuck in Ukraine. One of the cousins had their home surrounded by tanks while she was trying to take care of her six month old child with no food or water in their basement. Thankfully, this cousin was able to flee to Poland to join Valerie, and the third cousin and her child joined them soon after.

Dotsenko and Valerie’s immediate family and friends in Ukraine have remained safe and uninjured. However this war has taken a toll on Dotsenko and her whole family both physically and emotionally. Dotsenko, although safe in the U.S, says that she feels a level of survivor's guilt knowing how her family and friends are feeling the brutality of war. Even though Dotsenko is a busy student finishing the semester like all of her peers, she still feels as if she should be doing more to help. “I want to drop absolutely everything and go help out right there” she said.

For Dotsenko, the desire to help in whatever way she can, and the desire to know everything she can about what is going on in Ukraine has taken precedence. Although the media coverage of the war in Ukraine continues on a lesser scale, Dotsekno still asks that people continue to pay attention to what is happening during this war. 

“It's just been this constant progression, and it hasn’t been dying down even if it might seem like it,” Dotsenko said. “The consequences and effects of the war have not died down whatsoever.” 

For however bleak the situation may appear now for Ukraine, Dotsenko holds on to the hope that one day Ukraine will recover from the devastation of this war.

 “I feel that in some shape or form that there is coming back from this and the support that we have received from not only Marist, but from communities around the world,” Dotsenko said. “So as futile as it is right now, and as sad as I am about it right now, I hope to my core that there is some kind of phoenix from the ashes moment.”