The first time Olena Riabushenko, a teacher from Ukraine, came to Kent State University in 2021, the university had just begun welcoming international exchange participants back to campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
She came to Kent State to participate in the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program in Media Literacy, hosted by the Gerald H. Read Center for International and Intercultural Education within the College of Education and Human Services. The six-week professional learning experience brought international secondary school educators together to strengthen their teaching practice, explore media literacy and learn alongside American educators.
“It was a fairly competitive program,” Riabushenko said. “A colleague of mine from Ukraine and I came in April and May 2021, right after COVID restrictions lifted. We were the first group to come after COVID. We were very lucky, because we were allowed to come and be here in person.”
This past summer, Riabushenko returned to the university through a different fellowship, this time contributing to the international programs and community that had welcomed her.
A True Friendship Family
In February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it was her Kent State Friendship Family, David and Janet Dix, who reached out to encourage her to come back to Kent. The Friendship Family program pairs visiting international scholars with local families who offer support and community during their stay.
“I didn’t expect to come back, but I built a really strong relationship with my Friendship Family David and Janet Dix,” she said. “We used to joke that they called me their ‘international daughter.’ When the war started in Ukraine, David reached out and asked me to come with my kids, even just for a while. ... I told him I couldn’t go; I felt I needed to stay, but we kept in touch.”
A few years later, while pursuing graduate studies in the U.S., Riabushenko learned about an opportunity to complete a summer internship and she found herself back on the Kent Campus.
Building Connections
She returned to Kent State this past summer for the Edmund S. Muskie Professional Fellowship Program, which places selected Fulbright Foreign Student Program grantees from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia in professional internship experiences designed to strengthen practical skills, expand professional networks and support participants’ long-term career goals in their home countries.
Despite the war at home, Riabushenko’s focus is on the unique, positive impact she can make as a teacher. Her return offered the opportunity to support other academics while also continuing her own professional training.
As an intern at the Read Center, Riabushenko supported both the KSU Exchange and the Fulbright Pre-Academic Program, offered in partnership with Kent State’s Research Center for Educational Technology in the College of Education and Human Services and the ESL Center in the College of Sciences and Humanities. The Fulbright program helps incoming international Fulbright graduate students prepare for study at universities across the United States. Riabushenko helped coordinate activities and Friendship Family connections, drawing on her own exchange experience to welcome a new group of participants.
“Having Olena return was especially meaningful because she understood what it feels like to arrive in a new country and find a community that welcomes you. This summer, she helped create that experience for others,” M. Amanda Johnson, Ph.D., director of the Read Center, said. “Her story shows why the relationships we build through international exchange matter. They continue long after a program ends, and participants carry that support forward into their work with students, colleagues and communities.”
On the day Kent State Today met with Riabushenko, she and the other Fulbright participants were on Front Campus to paint the Rock before wrapping up their time at the university.
“My favorite part of being at Kent State for the second time is that I had a chance to cooperate with international students, and I was also able to work as a program assistant and coordinate the work of the Friendship Families and the activities we had here at the Read Center,” she said. “I really liked being able to share my background and learn about the backgrounds of other people. The ideas that come out of working with them spark and enrich the overall experience I have here. I think it’s a unique thing about Kent State — having the chance to be exposed to international scholars.
“In general, I really like the community here,” Riabushenko said. “I know many of the other Friendship Families, and I think this kind of cooperation between Friendship Families and Kent State is something other universities don’t really have — the whole program is designed around it, and we really appreciate that.”
The Ripple Effect
Not only did Riabushenko get to interact with other global scholars, but she also had the chance to share her knowledge in impactful ways. During her first experience at Kent State in 2021, Riabushenko said she realized that being able to pass along her knowledge and experiences to other teachers rather than just her own students is a powerful way to reach more students more efficiently – thus creating a ripple effect within education.
Coming here expanded my view on things — when you’re a teacher, you want to pass knowledge to your students, but when you come here and work with teachers, you understand that if you teach a teacher, they’ll pass it on to their students, and the number of students who benefit rises rapidly. That’s why I really like training teachers — they become agents of change in their communities.
What’s Next
With master's degrees in English as a second language and educational management, Riabushenko has returned to the University of Illinois Chicago where she’s working to complete her third master’s degree.
Following her experience this past summer in the Muskie Fellowship Program, Riabushenko hopes to extend her time here with post-degree academic training.
“I’d like to take a closer look at, and participate in, the American educational system, whether that’s secondary education or something like the Read Center — I’d like to see how it works from the inside, and continue studying here in the United States.”
Thanks to M. Amanda Johnson, Ph.D., for her contributions to this article.
