Marta Rogach and Vika Yaremchuk are exchange students from Ukraine who joined Tuck for a spring semester of 2023. Theyboth are originally from Lviv, Ukraine, and they are graduating this year from UCU Business School at Ukrainian Catholic University. Marta is finishing her Master’s degree in Marketing Management and Vika’s major is Technology Management. They have been very excited about coming to Tuck and sharing their stories about studying & working at the times of war.
Marta: “The idea to organize an event and share a piece of Ukraine with Tuckies came to me much sooner than my arrival here in Hanover. I have spent many years living abroad and always enjoyed learning more about other cultures and traditions, trying different national dishes and meeting people from all over the world. But Ukraine was always in my heart – the history of my country has always excited me and made me feel proud, the warmest memories of my life are associated with our traditions, our food has always been my favorite, and our language the most beautiful. Every time I travel abroad for a longer period of time, I take my Ukrainian embroidered shirt with me and I am always happy to share the culture I love so much with people all over the world. It was from there that the idea of holding a similar event here at Tuck came from.
Two years ago, I moved back to Ukraine from Poland and felt very happy to return to the place I love withall my heart. I couldn’t even imagine that a year after that I would wake up to the new reality in which war became a routine for me. The war changed many things, including my attitude to patriotism, love for the country and culture. These feelings have grown to infinity and now it is difficult to convey how proud I am that I belong to the nation of real heroes – courageous, strong, fearless. For many years, we were not noticed and our incredible nature, delicious food, unsurpassed music, interesting traditions, great achievements in sports and science were not noticed as well. But now it’s time to speak up. This event became an opportunity for me to introduce at least a small part of people to Ukraine, which I know and love. This is an opportunity to show and explain what we are so desperately fighting for. After the russian invasion, press and media began to talk a lot about Ukraine and show footage of the invasion and the destruction they brought to our land. So, I am sure that most people have seen what the war in Ukraine looks like, but in order to truly understand us, it is important to see what a peaceful Ukraine looks like.”
Vika: “It has been extremely enchanting for me to learn the traditions, food, music, rituals of other countries and nations whenever I traveled. The more I traveled, the more I came to love and cherish Ukrainian traditions which have their unique and very old history. They survived through centuries of repressions, ban, tragedies and lives lost so when we started thinking about the event, I already knew that I want to teach people one of my favorite Ukrainian traditions – Easter eggs painting, the tradition which dates back to pre-Christian times and appeals to something very unifying and eternal – calling for sun and warmth of summer. Every year before Easter, together with friends and family, we decorate and paint eggs with different patterns using wax pencils for that. This is a meditative, usually pretty long and always a very fun process of spending time with your close ones. It felt like a right thing to share and do together to learn about each other’s culture, values, creativity and old good coming out of one’s comfort zone but always staying in a supportive environment.
It has been especially important for me, when before the event I felt it was necessary to show Ukraine as it has not yet been shown in news/media, Ukraine before the full-fledge invasion of russia on February 24, 2022. It feels that every coming month we lose parts of our former lives, with every day of this war, slowly forgetting how it was when you lived your normal life and if you didn’t need to survive. I’ve not kept a diary or a journal of the war, which I’m sorry about but even more I’m sorry if we, Ukrainians, start remembering less about how it was before the war. There was a lot of high and low culture, feasts and daily meals of great food, amazing literature and cinema, flourishing entrepreneurship culture and longlasting culture of big agriculture and industry, great coffee and wine festivals, bustling theatrical life, amazing sport competitions, wonderful youth eco-initiatives and many things more. Above all, we were all building plans and many of us were hurrying back home for Christmas, Easter, and other holidays from all over the world. This year, Marta and I couldn’t be home for Easter, so we wanted to share some Easter with our fellow Tuckies, as well as let them taste and touch Ukraine in a different way”.
On April 17, the next day after the orthodox Easter Vika and Marta gathered more than 70 Tuck students, professors and friends to spend some time together “touching and tasting” what is it like being Ukrainian. The event included a few parts – Easter eggs painting workshop, a quiz about Ukraine, delicious Ukrainian dinner, presentation and auction. During the workshop, people learned how to create traditional Ukrainian “drapanky” and “krashanky” – colored eggs with beautiful patterns and shades. Vika explained the history behind this tradition and showed the process. In the end people could also compete in “egg battles” – one egg owner would tap another’s oblong point to see which egg escaped uncracked.
After the workshop people could enjoy a tasty dinner prepared by Vika, Marta and many volunteers, who were helping during the whole day. It was a 2-course dinner that included Ukrainian beetroot soup “borscht” and potato pancakes “deruny”. Borscht is so important and historical for Ukraine that last year the culture of borscht cooking inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent
Safeguarding.
While people were enjoying the food, Vika and Marta started the most important part of the event – a presentation about the past, current and future of their country. They showed what Ukraine really is by explaining and playing some videos about Ukrainian nature, food, culture, language, fashion, sport, history and people. The most touching moment was seeing tears in the eyes of people when some videos from war were played. People could see how different Ukraine is right now, how brave and how strong are Ukrainians and how much pain and suffer was brought to this country by russian invasion.
On this note, Vika and Marta announced the auction to fundraise for a charity fund Nova Ukraine. Among the lots were handmade chocolates from the most famous Lviv Chocolate Factory, handmade beaded necklace, a silver ring “Ukraine” and iconic Zelenskyy’s green T-shirts. Thanks to the active participation during the auction, we collected more than $700 that will be sent for providing humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.
In the end, everyone got a piece of delicious cake which was decorated with a known greeting – “Slava Ukraini – Glory to Ukraine”!
“We want to express our gratitude to all people that participated the event, donated money to Ukraine and showed their interest in learning more about our country. Also, we appreciate the help with the dinner – all volunteers who were peeling, cutting, boiling, cleaning, big thanks to all of you! Special thanks to Kakeru Tsubota, T’23 for a very big help organizing the event. And many thanks to the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Deans Office for sponsoring this event and giving us an opportunity to bring a piece of Ukraine to Hanover”.
April 23, 2023
by Marta Rogach and Vika Yaremchuk
