Karina Sukhina woke up to the sound of the first bomb that landed on Kyiv at five a.m. February 24.
While at first uncertain about what she’d heard, Sukhina and her boyfriend Nazarii Kulyk were soon packing their bags and heading for safety.
Days later, the master’s student in computer science at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Kulyk, also a master’s student studying at National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, fled Ukraine for Poland.
A short time later, they both received offers to join the University of Waterloo’s Ukrainian Academic Internship program this spring. Delighted at the prospect of continuing their education that had been disrupted by war, they arrived on campus with six other Ukrainian students in mid-May.
Supported by a cross-campus collaboration, Waterloo is welcoming a total of 34 Ukrainian students whose studies were interrupted by the ongoing war in their country.
See Disrupted by war for the full story.