13WHAM news at 11 pm covered MCC’s commencement and featured student Katsiaryna Pleshankova. Check out the news coverage here:
<https://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=18b9e772-7bca-49c4-ae3a-f324b815d515> and read the full story on her below.
Also, see coverage on the RocLoop at <https://rocloop.com/>.
Graduating with a 4.0 GPA on May 29 from Monroe Community College, Katsiaryna Pleshankova spoke no English when she arrived in the United States just four years ago. She credits her paternal grandmother with helping instill strong academic skills.
“She made me memorize poetry, the Russian classics,” said Katsia. Her grandmother died when Katsia was just 16 years old from cancer as a result of radiation from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in April of 1986.
Katsia was just 2 ½ years old when a reactor exploded at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, not far from the family’s home in Gomel City in what is now Belarus. She remembers little of that tragedy; only her mother’s chaotic rush to pack and leave the house – as soon as the government released news of the disaster, about a week after the damage had been done.
But while it has left a prominent medical concern in all those who lived in that region, Katsia says optimistically that “sometimes something good comes from disaster.” She and the other “Chernobyl babies” from Gomel City continue to receive regular stipends for vitamins and health programs.
It is, perhaps, her optimism and self-perseverence that helped her flee political persecution in Belarus in June of 2004. As a friend of several fellow Belarusian State University of Transport students who were seeking equality in sexual orientation, Katsia was targeted as a sympathizer. Her car was pummelled; people threw rocks through her windows at home; she was beaten up and jailed several times. Upon her arrest, Katsia says her name was recorded on a list. “I was told I had to flee for my safety.”
She had been told it was easy to find work in hotels in American tourist cities along the beaches, and she was awarded a visa. Even with three years of studies already under way at the Belarusian university, Katsia left behind her mother and father, aunts, uncles and cousins. She landed at JFK International with just $300 in her pocket and a Russian-English translation book in her hand.
But her arrival wasn’t so simple. When she attempted to describe her destination to a ticket agent, her language proved a barrier and she ended up on a bus to Cincinnati. While not the oceanside city where she anticipated working, Katsia met a couple originally from Russia who helped her get a start. “It was the hardest job I’ve ever had,” says the 24-year-old who originates from a well-educated middle class family; her mother works as an electrician and her father as an engineer.
Slowly she earned enough money for an apartment, and eventually she connected with several friends from the university who also fled Belarus. Little by little, her photographic memory also began picking up the English language. By the time she moved to Rochester in February of 2005, she could speak enough to be understood. A little over a year and many court appearances later, Katsia received political asylum.
With further pursuit to learn English and continue her college studies, the Penfield resident enrolled in her boyfriend’s alma mater – MCC. “I always wanted to become a doctor,” Katsia says, “even though my aunts and uncles always warned me not to because the pay is so low.” One aunt is a pediatrician, another an obstetrician and an uncle is a child neurosurgeon. Back in Belarus, medical professions are paid by the government-funded health care system, so pay is little, says Katsia.
As a biology major here at MCC, Katsia’s coursework has been challenging for her. “If it would take someone an hour to read a chapter, it would take me three. First I had to read the chapter and translate each word I didn’t know. Then I reread the chapter with the Russian translation. Then, so that I would remember the words in English, I read the chapter again.”
But she didn’t just go home from college classes and study. Katsia also works part time, and she was very active in co-curricular activities. She was selected to serve as a member of MCC’s team for the Model United Nations in which students from across the United States replicate the UN General Assembly in New York City. Katsia so impressed the judges that she was named as rapporteur for the conference.
She participated as a vice president in the MCC chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for students enrolled in two-year colleges, and tutored refugee youngsters from Somalia and Russia. This effort helped lead the chapter to earn an award as most distinguished out of 1,200 chapters around the world. Additionally, Phi Theta Kappa named her to their prestigious All-New York Academic Team.
“Katsia is patient, responsible, honest with herself and others, and has the utmost sense of integrity,” says Jodi Oriel, assistant director of MCC’s Campus Center at Brighton Campus, who serves as advisor to Phi Theta Kappa and worked closely with Katsia during the past year.
Also while at MCC, Katsia received scholarships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, New York State Transfer & Articulation Association, and University of Rochester, as well as MCC’s Thomas R. Kissel and Renaissance scholarships. She earned a Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence from the State University of New York, was named to the international dean’s list every semester, and listed to Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges.
But the biggest highlight over the past four years for Katsia will be seeing her mother. After weeks of a rigorous review process, Katsia’s mother, Iryna Zdor, was granted permission by the federal government to enter the U.S. and attend MCC’s commencement.
This fall, Katsia will continue to make her dreams come true. She will begin pre-med classes at the University of Rochester, studying to become either an obstetrician or a pediatrician.
Dianne E McConkey
College and Community Relations
06/02/2008 |