Special education has been a growing part of my life since birth.

My mother is an early
childhood special educator, so from a young age I was around her students. When I was 10,
special education became more personal. My sister was born with hydrocephalus and had
delays as a result of the condition. My passion grew as I started volunteering my extracurricular
time being a teacher’s student assistant in the self-contained classrooms at my middle school.
In high school, I was part of founding Ukraine Special Needs Orphanage Fund (USNOF).
USNOF works to promote an inclusive society and schooling for children with special needs in
Ukraine. It was in Ukraine that my passion for education for children with disabilities was
cemented.

I started working on the business side of USNOF and earned a bachelor's degree in
business administration to further this work. I worked for several years leading trips to Ukraine,
working on grants, and fundraising for the organization. To supplement my income, I began
working in Fluvanna County Public Schools as a substitute teacher. While working as a
substitute teacher, I worked with early childhood through high school in both general education
and special education classrooms. I found that I enjoyed my time working in collaborative
classrooms at the high school level. As a consequence of my experiences in special education
as a student and as a substitute, I decided to expand professionally on what I know and able to
do in the field by getting my Master’s in Special Education. I spent two years while pursuing my
master’s working for the Mason LIFE program. Working with Mason LIFE has given me the
opportunity to realize a strength and desire to work with young adults with disabilities that was
previously only hinted at in my work with high school students with disabilities. At Mason LIFE, I
worked briefly as an instructor before becoming a liaison for the program. This role was
administrative in nature. I oversaw part of the process of selecting and supporting students in
taking college-level courses. Now, I still work as a liaison, but in assisting and supporting
students in social activities and belonging to the greater Mason community. The position of
liaison has given me the opportunity to work closely with students and their families. I have
learned the skills to talk with both students and parents to determine the desires of the student
and then to advocate for and with the student towards achieving those desires.

Throughout both my studies and work, I have continued to have a passion for the
educational and disability rights movement in Ukraine. For the past two years, I have consulted
with parents, educators, and school directors within Ukraine on ways that they could better
serve, primarily through helping adapt curriculum and providing some fundamental trainings on
handling behavioral issues, the children in their care, through consultation with schools with
students with disabilities. This previous summer, I furthered this consulting by presenting at the
USNOF conference on a variety of topics related to special education.

I want to further my ability to lead and teach in my role in Ukraine by obtaining a

doctorate. There are several goals I have in my work in Ukraine. I want to be a larger part of
creating lasting change and giving a voice to the people with disabilities that currently are not
heard in Ukrainian society. The current education structure is beginning to see the benefit of
inclusive education, but the position of special educator does not exist. I want to help create a
teacher training program for special educators to teach them to better work with students with
disabilities, specifically within the inclusive setting. Current needs are quick trainings on
adapting curriculum, the continuum of special education services, and classroom management
skills as they pertain to students with disabilities. The longer needs are to have teachers trained
specifically to be special educators with university programs and licensures. I see my role in
Ukraine as growing into a role of educational leadership and research. I believe that while
studying for a doctorate, I will learn the skills necessary to create teacher training programs in
special education. I see myself in a role of teaching at the university level within Ukraine, as
well as traveling within Ukraine to visit schools and provide professional development trainings.
I also want to use this travel to do comparative research of the current state of special education
throughout Ukraine. I also want to help create and normalize the tools necessary to correctly
identify and place students with disabilities within Ukraine.

I believe that George Mason University is the best fit for continuing my education.
Mason’s PhD program in education provides a focus on international studies and the university
celebrates international diversity. Mason also fosters innovation and change as a university
tradition. This program can provide me with the knowledge and foundation in my journey to
being a catalyst for positive change in Ukraine, as both of these characteristics tie in well with
my future career and research goals.