As you walk around Woods Tennis Center, you often hear excitement in kids’ voices when they shout for Michael, a comfort for many despite the challenges he faces.
Mykhailo Ivashchenko, often referred to as Michael, is a PhD computer science student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ivaschenko moved to Lincoln from Ukraine four years ago as a Fulbright student.
As most of his family resides in Ukraine, it is difficult to find relaxation during this time as drone missiles attack his hometown daily. Despite this, Ivashchenko fills his time connecting and advocating for and with the Ukrainian population in Lincoln, coaching tennis, running a tennis summer camp for Ukrainian kids in the city, working as a graduate research assistant at UNL, and working tirelessly on AI for healthcare.
Ivashchenko is presented with uncertainty daily, and while able to maintain communication with his family, he has not had the opportunity to see them face to face in four years.
In the US, we find it difficult to grasp the daily realities of humans just over the sea from us. While we calmly sit with a roof over our heads, and food at our disposal, millions fight for their lives in their home country.
“Western media doesn’t cover what it is like to run and seek shelter at 3 am in the morning when a drone is about to hit the apartment one floor above you,” Ivashchenko said, describing the actuality of his family and friends. “What it is like to spend 7 hours of school in the basement because the air alarm doesn’t go off. What it is like to watch the rescue team dig through the rubble looking for your loved ones, hoping they are still alive. What it is like to wake up every morning and check every single messenger hoping you won’t see ‘the news’. What it is like to live close to the front line when the shelling doesn’t stop even for a day.”
He has worked to overcome the difficult truth and situation of his family members in Ukraine while doing everything in his power to help.
“Michael found an organization in Washington that was capable of collecting the donations and then use them to help Ukraine,” Viktor Khanzhyn, Ivashchenko’s roommate and professor at the University of Nebraska Wesleyan said. “He attended numerous Zoom meetings with the members of the organization working on proposals for the direction of these funds in Ukraine.”
Ivashchenko is a Fulbright student at the University, where he works with fellow Ukrainians to help their home country. They worked to gather the information needed for the war to help as many people as possible. They found how to relocate, where to stay, how to get there, and the medical supplies needed. They spent time organizing a fundraiser and purchasing medical and protection goods for military divisions. The few 6 of them collected a good sum of money to help the cause.
“I tend to think that if it helped to save the life of a father who has a family at home, then we did do something good,” Ivashchenko said.
While working for the cause overseas, Ivashchenko provides lots of assistance for the local Ukrainian community as well.
“He is so invested in their journey and improvement, and that is returned by the kids.” Talor Wane, head pro at Woods Tennis Center, said., “Each player is able to be what they need most around Michael. Michael’s love for the sport, and just as importantly his love for challenging himself and improving, has carried over to our wider Woods community, and now the Lincoln community as a whole.” Wane said.
He hosted a Ukrainian tennis camp with Woods Tennis Center including 31 Ukrainian middle schoolers.
“The ability for him and the players to be surrounded by people going through similar experiences and struggles and speaking their home language was so important,” Wane said. “For him it was an opportunity to help heal and support Ukrainian kids in the best way he could, using Woods and tennis as a small way to build community for those so far from theirs.”
This camp involved middle schoolers coming for 3 hours a day for a week, as they learned tennis skills, they also came home with a sense of comfort with the ability to speak in their home language, and communicate with others in the same situation as them. Tennis provided a gateway for this to occur and create an even deeper connection.
Ivashchenko not only hosted this tennis camp; he is working tirelessly in the lab to improve the technology in medical care to make a large impact on Ukrainian society. After finishing his PhD, he plans to return home and implement everything he has learned in the US to make his country better than he left it, as he continues to do even from an ocean away.
The war in Ukraine is full of difficult circumstances affecting millions of people and as Ivashchenko described, empathy, and support is needed to keep families such as Ivashchnko’s safe.
“People need to be vocal, people need to remember, people need to remind the politicians that there are things that matter,” Ivashchenko said.
US citizens’ support is creating a large impact in Ukraine. If you would like to continue this financial support, click here
