Ukraine

By Emily Stypolkowski

BOSTON – For Yelena Yukhvid and her family, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 had its curses as well as its blessings.

Ukraine, the former Soviet republic that the Yukhvids called home, was suffocating under the weight of a depleted economy and rising unemployment. Fearing more economic hardships, Yelena’s parents took advantage of Ukraine’s open exit policy and decided to journey west to the U.S.

“For my parents, leaving Ukraine will always be the right decision. They wanted more for me and my brother,” Yelena, a Boston University sophomore, says during an interview at the Warren Towers dining hall.

Yet the right decision is not always the easiest. For Yelena’s mother and father, Irina and Valeriy, leaving Ukraine meant leaving their life and culture behind.

“When you move from one country to another, you can’t take your whole life with you. You have to pick and choose,” Yelena says.

When the Yukhvids made their move to New York in December 1995, they brought with them the bare essentials. Trinkets that adorned their mantel piece during the Ukrainian New Year’s celebration were handed off to relatives instead of joining the family on their flight across the Atlantic.

Leaving Ukraine, Yelena says, was hard on her parents, and the lengthy immigration process did not make the move any easier. Yelena’s parents spent close to a year filling out paperwork and going to interviews in Moscow. The difficulty, however, lay not in emigrating from Ukraine but in gaining entry into the U.S.

After eight months, the U.S. granted the Yukhvids permission to immigrate, thanks in large part, Yelena says, to familial connections her family had in the country.

“Unless you had relatives in the U.S., immigrating to America was kind of impossible,” Yelena says, adding, “Without my aunt, I don’t think my family would have been able to come to the U.S.”

As for current U.S. immigration policies, Yelena says though the guidelines have gotten stricter, they remain fair, and she agrees with the stress the U.S. places on legal immigration.

“Everyone has the right to immigrate, but it should be done legally. My family did it legally.”

The 19-year-old says she does not understand why so many people skirt the immigration process. “Being illegal is hard. You have to constantly live under the radar.” She continues, “If immigrants want the full benefits of America, why not just do things properly?”

For her parents, Yelena says “doing things properly” helped make the transition to the U.S. easier. Her parents faced little trouble in acquiring jobs and quickly found an apartment.

“My parents couldn’t pick up where they left off, but, in time, they were able to rebuild their life,” Yelena says, playing with a gold curl of her hair. “I don’t think illegal immigrants can do the same.”

The B.U. student says illegal immigration results from people wanting what America offers without wanting to be American.

“I can understand people wanting to retain their cultural identity, but becoming a legal U.S. citizen doesn’t necessarily mean losing one’s culture.”

In Yelena’s case, however, becoming a U.S. citizen has altered her cultural identity.

Dressed in American labels and speaking without an accent, green-eyed Yelena shows no indication of her Ukrainian roots.  For Yelena, America is the place she calls home.

“By birth, I’m Ukrainian, but culturally, I’m American. I don’t identify myself as a Ukrainian, and my parents didn’t raise me as one,” she says. “I’m an American and happy to be one.”

BOSTON – Several Boston University students attacked President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Thursday, marking his first year in office.

While applause charged the House of Representatives Chamber throughout President’s Obama’s 74-minute speech Wednesday night, the halls of B.U.’s College of Arts and Sciences held sneers of disapproval. A quarter of the way into the President’s term, students are unsatisfied with the state of their nation.

“The country is not worst off than it was a year ago, but it is not better either. However, I don’t think Obama should be striving for the status quo,”19-year-old Sana Kamal said. Kamal, a Republican, said though the president presented a compelling speech, the president should try harder to turn his words into actions. “A great speaker is not necessarily a great leader.”

The “compelling” annual report attracted few students as viewers. Yet the lack of viewership did little to stem the flow of criticism.

Sitting outside of the CAS Admissions Office, Anna Bosworth, a 22-year-old Republican, said she was frustrated by the president’s lack of communication with the American people. “[President Obama] talks of the stimulus plan and the healthcare bill and how they are good things, but he never explains what these bills entail, so that the public can have a decent understanding of them,” Bosworth said.

Not all, however, showed displeasure. Rosa Rivera, a 21-year-old Democrat, said the president’s progress is right where it should be. “Some believed that Obama would come into office and fix America’s problems with the snap of his fingers,” Rivera said outside of her philosophy classroom. “Change will happen, but all in good time.”

With another year underway, Obama said in his report that he plans to implement that change with new legislative bills concerning unemployment and climate change.

Republican Scott Brown won the U.S. Senate seat for Massachusetts Tuesday night, beating Attorney General Martha Coakley by 5 percent of the vote. The media called the election soon after Brown picked up a 100,000 vote lead with 77 percent of the precincts reporting. With his victory, Brown becomes the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts since 1972.

Cheers of “Go Scott, Go” met Senator-elect Brown as he took the stage at the Park Plaza ballroom. Dressed in blue, Brown was in good spirits, thanking his supporters and joking about his truck.  Brown grew serious, however, as he concentrated on his new role as senator. “Most of all, I will remember that while the honor is mine, this Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one political party. This is the people’s seat,” Brown said, drawing applause and chants of “The People’s Seat.”  Brown capped his speech with a look into the audience. “I am nobody’s senator but yours.”

Brown’s speech followed Coakley’s concession at her headquarters at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. With U.S. Senator John Kerry and Governor Deval Patrick by her side, Coakley appeared relaxed but subdued as she addressed her supporters. Casually dressed in a beige jacket and navy dress, Coakley thanked her supporters and showed no regrets. “You don’t always win all the time, but you put in your best efforts because sometimes it’s more important to travel hopefully than to arrive. And we will continue to travel hopefully, I know that,” Coakley said.

Brown’s upset sets him up to be the 41^st vote in the Senate for Republicans, which could potentially pose problems for Democrats who have lost their 60-seat supermajority.

Williamsburg, Va., native Gretchen Baker decided to come to Boston University to pursue a major in international relations. Due to her travels, the most recent being her trip to Vietnam with the non-profit organization Operation Smile, Gretchen says the IR tract appeared to best suit her interests.  Yet Gretchen finds herself at B.U. because of her attraction to the city of Boston and the stress that B.U. places on interdisciplinary learning.

Through such interdisciplinary learning, Gretchen realized her skill in writing. Interested in an additional major in public relations, Gretchen took a communication writing course. “I never found myself being good at [writing],” she said, adjusting her red zebra-print cardigan. “But throughout the course, I enjoyed myself and was encouraged by my professor’s feedback.”

Gretchen used the positive feedback as a motivation to continue writing. Now 20 years old, Gretchen plans to transfer into the College of Communication from the College of General Studies to concentrate on magazine journalism. In the future, Gretchen said she hopes to incorporate her travels in her writing and become a travel writer.

“I’m really interested in writing feature pieces about people and places,” Gretchen said, sweeping her blonde hair away from her olive eyes. “There’s just so much people can learn.”