Svitlana Pankovets

November 29th, 2023

2023 Selfless Parent Scholarship

In a small Slavic Ukrainian village life, surrounded by ruins of World War II of bomb shelters that

now serve as a perfect hide and seek spot for the village kids. Among those kids were myself and ten

other siblings always looking for new adventures, whether it be swimming in the little creek near the

home with frogs or climbing the barn rafters. With the amount of times I accidentally jumped into the cow

food, those cows and I were friends. For an unsuspecting little five year old life was simple, as my parents

struggled to find security for their family in an unstable economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Winning the green card lottery was like an unfathomable blessing as they set their eyes on the promises of

the American Dream.

Sometimes blessings require sacrifice. As the sun set on October 20th, 2007, I found myself in the

living room of my house surrounded by paper suitcases and enough relatives to host a wedding ceremony.

What felt like an amazing new step in life quickly turned into a sorrowful goodbye from my closest

family and friends. Hugs, kisses, tears and departing words of affection, my parents increasingly struggled

holding back tears going from relative to relative exchanging their final goodbyes– not knowing if they

were to ever see eachother again. As the clock striked 10:00 it was time to head to the airport for

departure, loading up the final suitcase we aggressively waved out of the windows of our crowded van

until all our loved ones faded into the distance as we drove away. Later on in a conversation with my

cousin, she told me that after our family left, the whole village went silent, as if the village had just lost a

piece of itself.

After a couple exhausting days of constant layovers, we find ourselves in Washington State of

The United States of America. We were fortunate to have our uncle provide a small place to stay while we

looked for our own place to call home. After a month of searching, the stress lines on my parents'

foreheads began to grow deeper as realization set in that rent was expensive and we had little to no

money, they continued to work day and night until a ray of hope broke through as my parents were finally
able to find an apartment building. And so, we find ourselves settling into another place, only this time

with smaller walls with little privacy.

Our three bedroom apartment was not designed to fit a family of our size. Two of the rooms

consisted of two sets of bunk beds while my parents room included a twin sized bed and a baby cradle for

our youngest baby sister that was soon to be born. The living room became another sleeping space, the

bathroom sink was shared with five people at one time and my parents could never enjoy a single

moment of rest amongst all the chaos. My memories with my parents always involve them being busy.

My mom was in the kitchen cooking meals and my dad was at work from morning to evening working

hard to pay for our monthly bills. My dad never bought anything nice for himself but used his spare

change to buy us little birthday gifts or candy bars as treats. Even to this day he struggles to spend money

on himself, he is always putting his children first making sure they are happy. With little time to spare,

school was approaching right around the corner. If I were asked to rephrase one vivid moment of my

childhood completely, it would be the long hours of driving through donation centers scraping up all the

school supplies we can for all of our siblings and sitting through hours of food stamp registration. I was

always envious of the girls in my grade who had princess backpacks while all I had was a dark red

Jansport bag with a broken zipper. Still, I was never one to complain, especially after seeing the stress my

parents went through trying to budget as much as they could while communicating in their little

knowledge of English.

Through the fear, the worry, the discomfort and long working hours my parents never lost sight of

their goal for a better life for their children in America. They nurtured us physically, loved us

unconditionally and encouraged us day to day to achieve our highest potential. Inspired by their hard

working hands, their diligence and finally their selfless sacrifices, we all pursued higher education with

many of my older siblings holding masters degrees and having successful careers. I hope to honor my

parents' selfless sacrifices by pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics Education at Western

Governors University to carry that sacrifice and be the example, like my parents were, to the students I

will encounter.