UCC Regina assisting with U of R's Ivano-Frankivsk Program

August 7, 2007 – The University of Regina is once again sponsoring the Canada-Ukraine Students Scientific Internship Program. To sustain the program, the University of Regina has again approached the Ukrainian-Canadian community for financial support as well as help with billeting and the development of a social/cultural program. This year there will be five students from the Ivano-Frankivsk State University of Oil and Gas arriving in Regina in September. The UCC-Regina Branch is coordinating our community’s efforts with regards to this program, financial and otherwise.

Again, as in the past, these students are highly qualified and will be in Regina for approximately three months. The students will arrive August 31 and return to Ukraine November 30. They are and will be working at:

1. Iuliia Bilichak – Prairie Adaptation & Research Centre (PARC) at the Univ. of Regina
2. Vitaliy Charkovskyy – MERA Development Corp located on Research Drive, U of R
3. Liubomyr Havryliuk – SaskPower, Technical Support Division
4. Ostap Zarivnyy – Petroleum Technologies Research Centre, located at the U of R
5. Olha Zinyuk – SaskPower, Marketing Division

The merits of the program, for the community, are positive and worthy of support. Specifically the involvement of outstanding students from Ukraine in our community will help stimulate interest in Ukrainian matters amongst our youth in particular and the students will, to a certain degree, be role models for our youth.

A further benefit is the U of R has launched a program of sending up to four students from the U of R to Ivano-Frankivsk for a one-month period (started in May 2007).

UCC-Regina established a committee to work with the University of Regina on ‘inter-relationship with the Ukrainian Canadian community’ and finding families to billet/host the students. The members of the committee are Ken Mazur (789-4061), Ed Lysyk (789-6622) and Tony Harras (586-6805) who would be happy to answer any questions.

One of the main tasks of the Committee is to find families that are willing to host a student. Host families will receive from the University of Regina a charity receipt, for about $100 per week (total charity receipt of approximately $1200 to $1300) and a cheque for about $50 per week (total cash payment of $600 to $650). The students will be in Regina for 13 weeks.

Hosting families will be required to:

• ensure that the student has a means to travelling to and from his/her place of employment. (The University supplies each student with a bus pass) This could mean that the hosts may just need to familiarize him/her with the bus routes. This year two students will work at SaskPower and three at the University of Regina.
• provide him/her with accommodations and board,
• work with the UCC-Regina on a ‘public participation’ program where the students will have an opportunity to participate in various community events during their stay in Regina,
• assist them with acquiring clothing suitable for Regina winters (they are provided by the University with a spending allowance),
• ensuring that they have an opportunity to socialize with their colleagues from Ukraine and with the host,
• ensure that they receive medical attention should the occasion arise (they will have health insurance), and
• transportation to and from their place of worship as requested
• and if at all possible, provide the students with access to computers and the Internet.

The cost of the program is about $25,000 per year (per session) consisting of airfare costs, stipends, home-stay provisions, travel costs while in Saskatchewan plus a number of other items. The University has approached UCC-Regina for financial support in the order of $5,000-6,000 per year (session). Various organizations financially supported the program last year and will no doubt do so again this year. Questions regarding the program should be referred to the Committee members listed above.