Ukrainian exchange students Milana “Mila” Ovcharenko, 17, and Svitlana Shatrukova, 16, are scheduled to return home next month after spending the last school year at Sedona Red Rock High School. Since high school in Ukraine typically lasts two years for grades 10 and 11, the two are considered juniors by SRRHS but will be taking part in the graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 21.

“We got lucky that we passed through this program, and when I met [Shatrukova], she seems very quiet, and I didn’t know how we’ll be together,” Ovcharenko said. “I think we’re right now like best friends together.”

“We taught [Sedona] a lot more about Ukraine, not just as a country at war, but about the beauty of Ukraine itself,” Shatrukova said. “Because all the news now talks about Ukraine only in the context of war. But I think we described Ukraine as not just a country at war, but also a peaceful country with landmarks, landscapes, and we talked more about our culture and traditions as Ukrainian people.”

The two have been participating in the Future Leaders Exchange program, a U.S. Department of State-funded scholarship exchange initiative administered by American Councils for International Education. Ovcharenko said that she felt fortunate to be part of the program because it received 5,000 applications for only 50 places.

Shatrukova

Shatrukova has been staying in West Sedona with second-grade teacher Theresa Zaun since arriving from a rural community of about 2,000 people outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

“They understood me completely, and they supported all my decisions, because they knew that from [a] very early age I wanted to go to the United States and study,” Shatrukova said of her family’s reaction to her participation. “I wanted to go because [the United States] is a country with a lot of opportunities, there are a lot of different educational programs.”

Shatrukova said that she felt both excitement and fear before leaving, but talked with Zaun in advance in order to understand some of the changes she expected to experience.

“Svitlana is a very independent, smart, funny, and happy girl with a really big heart. She has volunteered at Sedona Winds and helped with the afterschool program,” Zaun said.

Zaun said that some of the highlights of the experience for her had been seeing Shatrukova and Ovcharenko playing basketball for the first time this year and taking Shatrukova to California for fall break and New York City for spring break.

“We have learned so much from having Svitlana with us this year,” Zaun said. “She has shared her experiences in Ukraine when the war started and she had to stay in her aunt’s basement for weeks, not knowing if it was safe to go outside. They didn’t have enough food, and what they were given wasn’t sufficient to feed the number of people hiding. She also shared that she had to live with only four hours of electricity a day. We watched ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ with her, and she would comment on the similarities to her own experience. We have been blessed in America to not know what war is like firsthand, so hearing her describe it is difficult and deeply moving.”

Shatrukova said that she plans to take a gap year before starting college to study architecture, which she is pursuing because of her love of drawing, but hasn’t decided if she will do so in Ukraine or return to the United States.

“No, not at all,” Shatrukova said when asked if she had any fears or concerns about returning home.

Ovcharenko

“I’m planning to enter university in Ukraine in Kyiv,” Ovcharenko said. “I’m not entirely sure about my field of study yet, but I’m interested in nutrition — and possibly something related to international relations. After spending a year in a completely different country, one very different from mine, I’ve started thinking about a future that involves working with other European countries and cultures around the world. I’d like to connect my life and career to something global like that.”

Ovcharenko has been living with Nita and Gary Duechle since August and said that her interest in nutrition was responsible for a significant amount of the culture shock she experienced when she was confronted with the American diet.

“I lived in the small town [of Hlukhiv], population was 30,000, but with war right now it’s like only 15,000, it’s in the northeast part of Ukraine and about six miles from [the] border with Russia,” Ovcharenko said.

Her mother is an English teacher who has taught her since kindergarten, and she also picked up basketball while in Sedona.

“I joined because of my height, I’m six foot and [by] the end of season, my record was 23 points in one game, seven stills, 19 rebounds and I think two assists,” Ovcharenko said. “I improved and was awarded the most improved on [the] basketball team. I’ve been successful, so I think [I’ll] continue playing.”

“With not only a positive mindset, but a true growth mindset to become the best basketball player she could be in a limited amount of time, [Ovcharenko] blew both the coaching staff and her teammates away with her ability to pick up things quickly and improve daily in practice,” Head Coach Becca Serenity said while presenting Ovcharenko with the Most Improved award in February. “If she can grow this quickly with something she’s never done before, the sky is truly the limit. I’m so excited to see how Mila applies her work ethic and discipline to other aspects of her life, beyond sports.”

Ovcharenko comes from a large family and has an older brother, who is 25 and a volunteer in the Ukrainian army with a family of his own, a wife and a young daughter. Her father, Oleh Ovcharenko, is a border guard currently serving as a soldier.

“After the war started, he felt he needed to fight to protect his family and his country,” Ovcharenko said. “He works for about two weeks at a time, then comes home for a couple of days. Right now, he’s working with explosives for drones — he flies them near the border and drops them.”

“I’m feeling happy that I’m going back home,” Ovcharenko said. “Of course, there’s a lot going on here, but when you’re 17 years old and can only see your family once a year, that’s hard. I do have a few concerns, though. Right now, I’m living just six miles from the border, and things are getting really difficult. All of the nearby villages have been destroyed — there are no more villages around my town. It’s scary, because my town is still standing — not in great shape … Every day, there are rocket attacks. It’s really dangerous to live there. So that makes me a bit worried. But at the same time, I’ll be with my family, and that brings me comfort. They’ll be calmer with me home, and I hope I’ll be safe with them.”