By A bus to Moldova, a flight to Austria, then Germany, Denver, and finally Helena. That’s how Anzhela Stoliar made it to Carroll College from her wartorn home in Ukraine.
“I’ve never been outside of Ukraine,” Stoliar said. “I’ve always wanted to study abroad.”
Stoliar is a senior international relations major at the Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. At Carroll, she has to start fresh, becoming a freshman again.
However, Carroll is currently in the process of transferring Stoliar and her fellow Ukrainian students’ credits.
Stoliar comes from the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, where she lived in the village of Chornobaivka.
Chornobaivka is notably known for a series of attacks successfully planned by Ukraine, pushing out their Russian occupants.
“Since November, my village has been under Ukrainian control,” Stoliar said.
Stoliar said her village holds old, gray, and small soviet buildings, but they had been reconstructing the area with new parks and structures.
When the war began, Stoliar had to go from Mykolaiv, Ukraine, to western Ukraine, where her grandmother lived. She met her parents, who had fled their home village there.
Together they traveled north to Korosten, Ukraine, to escape the fighting.
“It took my parents one month to finally escape north,” Stoliar said.
Before the invasion, in addition to getting a degree in international relations, Stoliar worked.
“I worked as a recruiter for a Ukrainian recruitment agency,” Stoliar said. “I hired people, interviewed them, and met with clients.
The agency Stoliar worked for helped Ukranians obtain jobs in various places worldwide.
Stoliar also enjoyed going to the theater to watch plays with her friends before the war began.
At Carroll, she joined the National and International Student Organization, a student-run club for international students.
She continues to be welcomed by new people while navigating through Carroll and the United States in her first experience outside of Ukraine.
“My life at Carroll is brighter,” Stoliar said. “I’m happy to receive a lot of support from people in the U.S.”
