Goodrich-Anna Sorchynska will take countless American memories back to her hometown of Vinnytsya in west-central Ukraine, including dinner at Taco Bell, the atmosphere of downtown Detroit, and the absence of cigarette smoke.
‘When I leave my apartment building in downtown Vinnytsya, I smell cigarettes and the trees,? said Sorchynska, 15. ‘No one smokes here, or a least not in public. So many more people smoke back home. It’s one of my first impressions of America’smoke free.?
Sorchynska came to Goodrich as part of the Future Leaders Exchange, or FLEX program. The U.S. State Department-sponsored scholarship program is for students from the countries of the former Soviet Union, including the Ukraine. The program has its origins in the Freedom Support Act, which was passed by Congress in 1992. The act attempts to build future U.S. relations with the countries of the former Soviet Union based upon bridges of personal friendship and mutual understanding. Sorchynska stays with the Brehl family of Goodrich and will attend the high school until May.
Sorchynska lives in an apartment near the banks of the Southern Bug River and attends Vinnytsya City School 1. She is the daughter of Dr. Serhiy Sorochynskyy, a surgeon, and Dr. Inna Dodon, a gynecologist, both of whom practice in the Vinnytsya area. The city has a population of about 400,000. About 95 percent of the people in her area speak the native language Ukrainian, the other 5 percent speak Russian. Sorchynska speaks both in addition to English.
‘I came to the United States to experience the culture,? she said. ‘In the Ukraine people think the U.S. is the country of dreams, but I realized people work very hard to achieve. It’s really not what I expected, it’s different. Some of my first impressions are kids hang out with their parents here’they spend way more time than I or any of my friends would. I see them out to dinner or at the store together. At home, I’d go out with my friends to dinner, to a park or for a walk. My mom and dad would know my friends, but never would they go with us. It’s kind of weird.?
‘We have very few Mexican foods back home,? she said. ‘Taco Bell and Qdoba (Mexican Grill) are absolutely wonderful places to eat here. I did cook my host family potato pancakes, they’re pretty good. But, I have not made Borscht’soup with beets, onions, cabbage ground up. I would (make it), but I have to eat that every week at home, so maybe not.?
Sorchynska’s home city of Vinnytsya is about five hours or 200 miles south of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. According to news sources, in 1986 a flawed nuclear reactor coupled with serious safety mistakes from operators prompted an explosion. For two weeks after the disaster radioactive fumes were emitted from the site. For two weeks, the devastated reactor building was leaking fumes of contaminated waste, despite desperate attempts to seal it up.
‘You can go visit Chernobyl today, but you need to get a pass and permission,? she said. ‘However, I know people that just sneak in there and have their own meter that measures radioactivity. It’s safe now, but some people still suffer from the effects. It was many years ago, but the government waited weeks before telling people what had happened there. No one lives around the plant’it’s really grown up and is a beautiful in that area of the Ukraine.?
ally grown up and is beautiful in that area of the Ukraine.?
Sorchynska purchased a Ronald Reagan T-shirt after she arrived in the United States and often wears it to school.
‘I like Reagan,? she said. ‘He was a great president’tore down the Berlin Wall and helped the Soviet Union collapse. Some of the older people still support communism and the old ways.?
While Sorchynska’s home city remains distant from the war zones of the eastern Ukraine’she supports her country’s endeavors to oust the Russians.
According to news reports, protests in Kiev, the Ukraine capital and largest city originally erupted in November 2013 after President Viktor Yanukovych chose not to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union at the summit of the Eastern Partnership at Vilnius, opting for closer ties with Russia, instead. The conflict escalated rapidly, leading to the downfall of the government of President Viktor Yanukovych and the setting up of a new government to replace it within a few days.Yanukovych fled to Russia, and is wanted in Ukraine for the killing of protesters. The conflict continued with the 2014 Crimean crisis. Russian forces invaded Ukraine and seized control of the Crimea region. For some eastern European countries, signs of Russian aggression in former Soviet satellite states stoked old fears about a Russia with imperialist ambitions.
‘I had friends that fought in that conflict and continue to fight,? she recalls. ‘The greatest problem in my country is the people’s indifference. There is a war going on. There were some clashes with police in my city? I’ve been there in the Central Square of the city. In 2014 the fighting with police was not uncommon in the Ukraine. Our government claim to be pro-Ukrainian; however, some of their actions do not represent that’the need to be honest with the people. There are parents from my school that said when the Russians came into the Ukraine they took their businesses and their homes’now they are refugees.?
Sorchynska hopes to pursue a career as a military correspondent for the media.
‘I plan on going to the war zone for stories,? she said. ‘The goal is to show people what is really going on in the war areas.?