26 D'MENSIONS MAGAZINE The education system in the United States, she says, is far different from what she experienced in Ukraine. “Teachers and professors back home, they’re super strict,” she says. “They basically hush their students, whereas here, professors aren’t necessarily your friends, but they’re people you can approach. And if you need to explain your situation, professors here have humanity; they understand what you’re going through and seem to enjoy helping you. “I feel like professors here are actually trying to teach you something, rather than lecture you.” Proponeko is set to earn her undergraduate degree in May. Asked about her immediate plans after graduation, she offers a similar answer given by her Ukrainian classmates — talking about it might just jinx it. She is, however, happy to answer the next question: What is it about Ukraine that she wishes Americans better understood. “Americans know about Ukraine, because of Russia. Russia invaded us, and Russia stole a lot from us,” she says. “But we are not Russia. Ukraine is a great country. I don’t know if Americans understand how big it is and how strong we are. We have our own culture and our own traditions. I’d say our country has a lot to show, but we’ve never really spoken up.” BAZHANNYA DOPOMOHTY THE WILL TO HELP After he was accepted into D’Youville University, but before he ever stepped foot on campus, Yaroslav Malynych — “Yaro,” to his friends — was asked by President Clemo to do a Zoom presentation to his future classmates in the U.S. to talk about Ukraine and the new war that had turned his country upside down. From his home in Lviv, Ukraine — one of the western-most cities in the country and one mostly spared from the death and destruction over the last four years — Malynych was five minutes away from going live when sirens started going off. The alarms signaled the threat of a drone or missile strike, so Malynych and his family went to one of the safest spots in his home, the downstairs bathroom. It was from there Malynych greeted the D’Youville students half a world away. “I was sitting in the bathtub, and the only reason we went there was because the WiFi didn’t reach our basement,” he recalls. “I didn’t think anything of it, but I can see why that image stuck for everyone else.” Malynych was 17 when the Russian invasion began. His hometown of Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine, with a population of roughly 723,400 as of 2025. A historic city known for its beautiful architecture and natural beauty, Lviv is about 700 miles away from the Russian border and it became the “de facto safe haven” for refugees fleeing the country’s eastern regions at the onset of the war. Before the war, Malynych considered himself a typical high school kid. Living close to the mountains, he loved to hike and snowboard with his friends. He didn’t consider himself the “best student” in high school, but his favorite subject was chemistry, and he was part of his school’s Chemistry Olympiad team before it was broken up by COVID in 2021 (and again the following year because of the war). On the morning of Feb. 24, 2022, Malynych — like Proponeko — was awakened by his mother instead of his alarm that morning. Before he could register what was happening, he heard the sirens for the first time, and his family packed their bags and headed to his grandparents’ home, where it was considered safer. Over the last four years, D’Youville’s Ukrainian students have adapted well to life in Buffalo. Some students joined DYU’s tennis and volleyball teams, and others became student ambassadors. The inititial group that arrived in the fall of 2022 is set to graduate this May.
