“I Never Thought I’d Be A Wartime Principal”
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, St. George Academy in an area of the East Village known as Little Ukraine that already served many kids with Ukrainian connections, has admitted over 60 refugees from the war-torn country.
| 14 Mar 2023 | 01:55
Left to right: Nazariy Kosar, Olha Stank, Nicole Kozmey, and Maksym Kosar. All four students came from Ukraine to St. George’s Academy. Photo: Kay Bontempo.
Principal Andrew Stasiw at St. George Academy says he tries to downplay the war but with over 60 students who arrived at the East Village high school since the Russian invasion a year ago, they inevitably find their own sources of news from their embattled homeland . Photo: Keith J. Kelly
The impressive Ukrainian Catholic church connected with St. George Academy. Photo: Kay Bontempo
St. George educates Ukrainian students alongside Americans of various backgrounds. Here, a group of freshmen sit in math class. Photo: Kay Bontempo.
“I never thought I’d be a wartime principal,” says Andrew Stasiw, principal of St. George Academy in the East Village. The only Ukrainian-founded high school in the United States, St. George has found itself over the past year confronting challenges no high school expects.
Since February 24th, 2022, when the war in Ukraine began, Stasiw has accepted over 60 refugee students from Ukraine. Some come alone, others with parents. Some are homeless when they arrive in New York, while others have family members to stay with.
While St. George also welcomes plenty of non-Ukrainian students, the school is uniquely qualified to serve the needs of those escaping the war. The majority of the teachers at St. George speak fluent Ukrainian, and Ukrainian culture is kept very much alive within the school. Stasiw himself is American-born but speaks Ukrainian, and both his parents immigrated from Ukraine.
Educating refugee students, many of whom are undoubtedly traumatized from fleeing the war, comes with unique challenges.
“Some are...staying in homeless shelters. I did have parents show up here with students with suitcases, saying, ‘We’re looking for a place to stay.’” St. George does what it can to help these students get settled, and provides free and subsidized tuition to as many as possible.
Beyond the basic needs of shelter and education, “I think that the cloud of the war hangs over them,” says Stasiw. “They want to hear daily [updates], from dads that couldn’t leave the country. Some dads and moms are in the military, in uniform.”
Slava Ukraini
Nicole Kozmey and Nazariy Lanyk, both 14-year-old freshmen, came to St. George from Ukraine after the war began. Nazariy fled Ukraine with his mother after his city was bombed, first traveling to Poland and then arriving in New York last summer.
Nicole was born in the US and her family moved back and forth several times before settling in the city of Zakarpattia in Ukraine. They moved back to the US recently when her mother sensed that war was imminent.
Maksym Kosak, a senior at St. George, came to the United States alone. Like the other students I spoke to, his father is not allowed to leave Ukraine; all men between 18 and 60 must stay to fight if needed.
Maksym, who has just turned 18, says the war and Ukraine’s conscription policy means he can’t return to his home country for the foreseeable future.
“According to my [preference], I would’ve stayed. But I don’t know what it would have been if I stayed. I would be fighting.”
Stasiw says he strives to limit the students’ exposure to news from the war. “It’s too painful,” he says. However, they inevitably (and understandably) seek out information anyway.
“There was a recent execution that was live, on the video blogs you could actually see a Ukrainian prisoner [killed]. Russians caught him...he says ‘Slava Ukraini’ [‘Glory to Ukraine’], and they gun him down right away.” Watching graphic content like this, he says, can obviously be detrimental to students’ mental health.
Like the other refugee students at St. George, Maksym, Nicole and Nazariy still follow the news from Ukraine constantly. However, they are wary of most mainstream media sources, and savvy about the amount of misinformation out there. Instead, they tend to seek information through word-of-mouth directly from those he knows back in Ukraine.
“Mostly I look at Telegram, personal blogs,” says Maksym. “Sources that I trust, that are found from other people that I trust.”
While the students are adjusting to life in New York, the majority hope to return home eventually. “I just want to leave soon, back to Ukraine,” says Nicole. “That’s my home.” At least before the war, she says, Ukraine felt safer than she now feels in New York. She was allowed to stay out late and go out with friends, while here the rules are stricter.
Schoolwork comes first
Stasiw maintains that education comes first, and says he strives to treat the newcomers as he would treat any student.
“Teenagers are teenagers,” he says. As a principal and a teacher, his primary role is to make sure that every student who comes through their doors receives an excellent education.
“You still have to do the work. You still have to strive for academic excellence. And you have to realize this is a tough school. It’s college prep. We’re not just going to give you core classes for the Regents, we’re going to make you take four years of computer coding.”
Several of the students describe school in Ukraine as being more intense, and they come to St. George prepared with a very strong work ethic. When asked what he does for fun in New York, Nazariy says he spends much of his time studying to improve his English.
Stasiw also tries to help the students enjoy normal life here as much as possible. A Catholic school, they are connected to the adjoining St. George Church, where students attend Mass. St. George hosts winter concerts and a senior prom, and offers typical high school activities such as drama club and music.
“You have no greater potential than when you get educated,” says Stasiw. “So we try to inspire the kids. We try to make them happy.”