Tetiana (Tanya) Kotelnykova was born and raised in Ukraine. She is no stranger to the violent, years-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The specter of war in 2014 forced her to abandon her cherished hometown of Horlivka in eastern Ukraine, as it was swallowed by the encroaching presence of Russian separatist forces. With hope in her heart and resolve in her steps, she embarked on a journey that would lead her to Kyiv in 2018. During this time, Tanya has been separated from her family, who has remained in the occupied territory of Ukraine.
On an early morning in Kyiv in February 2022, the echoes of an explosion woke Tanya from her sleep. Tanya rushed to her window as her eyes tried to make sense of the chaos. It was a moment suspended in time as she grappled with the unthinkable truth: war had descended upon her beloved city. Upon realizing that she was in the midst of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she immediately took her passport, documents, and a bag with her belongings and went to the shelter. She knew she would have to flee her home again. This time, her gaze was set towards the distant refuge of Western Europe.
Tanya was eventually awarded the opportunity to come to the United States as a recipient of Columbia University’s Scholarship for Displaced Students. For refugees and asylum-seekers from across the world, this scholarship provides full tuition for an undergraduate or graduate degree from any of Columbia’s 19 schools, as well as housing and living assistance. So far, this scholarship has supported 54 students from 24 different countries. For more information, visit the scholarship’s website: https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/CUSDS.
Inspired by her own life experiences, Tanya decided to study Human Rights at Columbia and graduated from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in October 2023. This year, she is continuing her academic journey by pursuing a master’s in Russian, Central European, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies at Yale University.
Surrounded by persistent war in her adolescent years, Tanya witnessed peers who could not continue their education for a multitude of reasons. Young Ukrainians bravely went to the frontlines to defend their country, many fled their homes for safety and found themselves as refugees, and some were even forcibly relocated to Russia. These experiences fueled her commitment to helping young Ukrainians find educational opportunities outside of the occupied territory. Tanya began her first initiative in 2018, which was a mentorship program for young people living in occupied eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Her organization helped these young Ukrainians move out of occupied territory to pursue further education. These mentees were often unaware of educational opportunities outside of the occupied territory, so Tanya’s efforts were quite impactful. She shared her story as motivation for her mentees, showing that if she was able to escape the occupied territory herself, then so can they! Unfortunately, this mentorship program came to an end in early 2022 as the Russian invasion commenced. This was painful for Tanya, as she had planned events at universities in south Ukraine, where a majority of her mentees had relocated.
However, as Russia’s full-scale invasion further deprived the Ukrainian youth of their access to education, Tanya decided to restart her mentorship efforts upon arriving in the United States. In September 2022, she launched the organization Mentor Ukraine, which helps foster mentorship between a Ukrainian student and a US college student mentor. Mentors from this program help Ukrainian students through the strenuous college application process for international students, coaching them with essays and preparation for English language proficiency standardized tests (such as the TOEFL exam).
Although Mentor Ukraine has been a success, Tanya was driven to help address more of the pressing needs of Ukrainian youth beyond education. Therefore, in May 2023, Tanya took it upon herself to incorporate Mentor Ukraine into a new umbrella organization called Brave Generation. Along with Mentor Ukraine, Brave Generation features three new programs:
Heal Ukraine: connects mentees to professional mental health services
Teach Ukraine: provides mentees with financial assistance for exam fees and travel to their universities
Innovate Ukraine: connects mentees with professors for research opportunities
Tanya currently serves as the president and executive director of Brave Generation. Brave Generation has had incredible success in a short span of time. As of now, 160 students have already been matched to mentors, and 39 students have been accepted to international universities – with almost all of them receiving full scholarships. Plus, 2 mentees have been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship (https://us.fulbrightonline.org/).
Tanya strongly believes in the importance of educating the young Ukrainian population, as they will become the future leaders of Ukraine and will be tasked with rebuilding the country following the war. Having educated leadership will be crucial to preventing future conflicts like this. After experiencing two wars firsthand, Tanya is committed to ensuring this does not happen again. In fact, Tanya is leading an initiative at Brave Generation to form a leadership program to build community among young Ukrainians and empower them for post-war reconstruction.
Brave Generation mentors meet at the organization’s first Annual Event hosted in August 2023
Along with disrupted access to education, the Ukrainian youth is facing significant mental health challenges. From seeing the destruction of their hometowns and experiencing the loss of friends and family, many young Ukrainians struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a pressing issue that Brave Generation’s subdivision of Heal Ukraine seeks to address. Partnered with the American Group Psychotherapy Association, Heal Ukraine provides weekly virtual group therapy sessions led by accredited psychologists. Mentees still living in Ukraine get access to individual therapy through Psyhelp UA and Polish Action Humanitarian, and mentees seeking individual therapy in English have access to BetterHelp (a US company providing virtual sessions with professional therapists). Plus, Heal Ukraine provides access to online well-being resources such as Aura Health. All of these mental health resources are provided to young Ukrainian mentees for free!
Heal Ukraine aims to foster connections between mentees through their weekly sessions and give them evidence-based tools to process and recover from their trauma. Brave Generation leadership hopes that these valuable resources will help Ukrainian youth find stability and be more successful in their educational careers. However, in the long term, Brave Generation believes that improved mental health – in addition to educational resources – will be essential for the youth to rebuild post-war Ukraine. Brave Generation aims to empower its mentees with both the educational knowledge and mental resilience to be able to create a better future for themselves and their future generations.
Brave Generation mentors receiving recognitions and awards at the first Annual Event
Unfortunately, Brave Generation is currently facing a major challenge as they are struggling to find more mentors. Although Brave Generation has formed 160 mentor-mentee matches, the organization has seen significant growth and now has a total of 487 students in their network. Tanya states that people in the US and Europe are becoming accustomed to the Russia-Ukraine war and thus are less eager to participate in the mentorship program (as well as supporting Ukrainian humanitarian projects in general). Thus, it is essential to remind the public that the war is still happening and continue to share stories from people seeing the violence firsthand.
As readers of Humanitarian Voices, Tanya invites you to journey to your childhood and teenage years. Now, take a moment to contemplate the stark reality faced by countless young Ukrainians since 2022 (or since 2014 for those living in previously occupied territories), where their lives have been utterly upended by the horrors of war. Becoming a mentor to a young student can hold a greater transformative power than donating substantial sums of money. Not only will you be instrumental in reshaping the life of a young Ukrainian, but you’ll also play a pivotal role in creating a brighter post-war future for Ukraine.
For more information about applying to be a Brave Generation mentor, please visit their website.