How one Ukrainian newcomer has embraced the Canadian education system
After initial struggles, Viktoriia Lukianchuk began taking advantage of what a new school had to offer
Viktoriia Lukianchuk remembers the wailing of air raid sirens.
From her family's fifth-floor apartment in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, she could see the bombings as Russia assaulted the Black Sea coast with missiles and drones in 2022.
"I remember the siren sound," Lukianchuk says. "I am still like — if I hear it, I will be triggered."
Lukianchuk and her mother arrived in Canada in July 2022. They are two of about 14,000 refugees that have found sanctuary in the Edmonton region after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The challenges faced by those Ukrainians forced to flee their homes for a new country are myriad — like finding a home and employment. And for those with school-aged children who have moved to a new country, navigating a new and unfamiliar education system, in an unfamiliar language.
In Odessa, Lukianchuk attended a state school that placed an emphasis on teaching English. She was excited about entering Grade 10 at Leduc Composite High School.
But it wasn't easy.
"I was lonely and I cried a lot," the 17-year-old recalled.
"I remember one time I had a mental breakdown, because I had to use a translator. I didn't want to use a translator, but I couldn't understand people, and I cried because of that," she said.
Slowly she found herself using a translator app less as she gradually adapted to the Canadian school.
"I was like, 'okay, I'm fine'," she said.
Tapping into a creative outlet
An aspiring writer, Lukianchuk took a creative writing class in her first semester in Leduc and impressed her teacher.
"She was quiet. Incredibly respectful and eager to be there. I remember her sitting immediately in the front row, which is pretty impressive and cool for somebody who's just joined the class a little bit late," remembers Kylie Burton, a creative writing and English teacher who taught Lukianchuk in Grade 10.
"Her biggest thing that she wanted to do was have bigger word counts. She wanted to write more. She wanted to build these worlds, some of which were characters that she'd been working on back in Ukraine, but now putting them into the English language."
Burton said Lukianchuk came into the course "already a writer" who was looking for space to grow.
Burton found knowing that Lukianchuk she was dealing with "an emotional heaviness" that nobody else in the class was facing the biggest challenge. Burton focused on making her classroom a safe and creative space.
"But knowing that that's going on, it's a difficult thing, as a human being and a teacher," she said.
Learning art
Art is Lukianchuk's other passion. Seeing the Leduc school's art studio was an immediate inspiration.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I want to be there.' I want to try everything that is in the art studio."
Leduc Composite High School's art teacher Ashley Meyer said doing art can be a confidence builder and provides Lukianchuk a space where she doesn't have to worry about her English proficiency, and enables her to explore skills that are universal.
But there were moments that caught Meyer off-guard and caused her to reflect.
On the first day of classes, she gives students a questionnaire to learn more about them — where they are from, what their family looks like, what schools they have attended, and their own strengths and weaknesses.
One of the questions was about pets.
"And Victoria's answer was that she had a dog, but the dog was still back in Ukraine. And it's just one of those things that … it just tugs at your heartstrings and hits you," Meyer said.
In another assignment, Lukianchuk chose to draw a horse, because it looked like one she used to ride in Ukraine.
"Something like that, it just kind of stops you in your tracks a little bit. And you're like, that's a lot to have to be going through, at this age especially."
Accepting school environment
Brad Clarke, principal at Leduc Composite High School, said Lukianchuk has gradually found her place and her voice at school.
"As the international flavour of our school has grown over the years, we see our students just quite happy to get to know our students from overseas, and bring them into our world and celebrate their differences, and celebrate the diversity and the background that they bring to our school," he said.
Brandi Rai, president of the Alberta School Councils' Association, said as much as students play a role in welcoming students like Lukianchuk, it is up to parents to help prepare their kids to be "global citizens."
"As parents, we can be infusing that rhetoric and that mentality into the way that we parent our children, and the way we volunteer in our schools, and the way that we work in partnership with our teachers," she said.
As for Lukianchuk, the Canadian school system has been less of a pressure cooker compared to the Ukrainian school system, and it has provided her with many new opportunities. It is something she is grateful for.
"I met new people. I made friends. I have friends. Now, I have a lot of friends compared to Ukraine. And I don't feel lonely anymore," she said.
This story is funded by the Emerging Reporter Fund on Resettlement in Canada by Carleton University's Future of Journalism initiative.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
