On December 12, the RimaOne website published an article «The Unbroken. How universities in Ukraine become centers of hope». The author of the article is Natalia Oboznenko, Academic Director of Business School of UCU (LvBS). In the publication Natalia tell about community life in the new realities. Despite the military aggression, regular shelling and large-scale blackout, continues to study.
«We wanted to tell about daily rocket attacks notified by multiple app alarms in public places and about our everyday readiness for a possible several-hour stay in the shelter without light, mobile connection, or the Internet. Then, we could share our meeting agenda about preparing for an apocalyptic winter without electricity and heating while we discuss the urgent purchase of charging stations, generators, rechargeable lamps, hot water pots and power banks, Starlinks, and everything else that keeps energy, connection, and heat without access to the power grid. But we wouldn’t have told you all those details. It is how a regular Ukrainian family lives, how every Ukrainian organization survives, and how the Ukrainian Catholic University Business School works. And now we discovered that this is how any other country in the world lives in a war context. On the edge of unpredictability, danger, and uncertainty but looking for options to keep human dignity and the minimum necessary level of comfort», said Natalia.
According to Natalia, the UCU Business School receives great support from foreign partners, «On February 22-23, the Executive Technology Management Master’s program hosted a module on Leadership by Professor Gerard Seijts from the Ivey Business School, Western University (Canada). Two weeks after the 24th of February we received a letter from Gerard with a very substantial offer: he started collecting funds from private benefactors in Canada for ten scholarships for Ukrainian students. Today 6 of our students and 3 students from Kyiv Mohyla University are studying in Canada on a one-year MBA program with full funding for accommodation and tuition. We received a valuable offer of student mobility and confirmation of real support in hard times. Today Prof. Seijts is preparing research on the roots of Ukrainian Leadership, and had a presentation speech during Alumni Leadership Day of our school and takes an active role in highlighting the reasons for this conflict and Leader Character in various media. Leadership has many forms and the active position of Prof. Seijts is one of the bright examples».
Also, the UCU Business School was supported by the European Foundation for Management Development, POLIMI, DePaul University, University of Fredericton, Wharton and others. «EFMD was the first professional association of business schools, which reacted to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the fastest and their statement was the clearest. Our European colleagues offered the whole list of free-of-charge opportunities for Ukrainian Business Schools. Fortunately, since the 24th of February, a lot of Universities and Business schools have offered to open their online courses for Ukrainian students. Among others, I would like to mention some of them, namely POLIMI, DePaul, and UFred, which worked long hours with our managers and international offices to choose appropriate courses, adapt the curriculum, and convert credits and contact hours to our local credit system», she said.
More information can be found on the website RimaOne.
