Former exchange student of NHS tells of family experience in Ukraine

Sofiia Mishchenko, from Newton’s sister city of Smila, Ukraine, was a student at Newton High School in 2019-2020. Matt and Debbie Muckler were her host family.

Mishchenko was a very good student here, and received excellent grades. She actively participated as a cheerleader for wrestling and basketball.

In 2020, after graduating from Lyceum “Leader” in Smila, she commenced studies at Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego-Kozminski University, in Warsaw, Poland, a private institution of higher learning founded in 1993. She is studying finance and accounting there.

I met Mishchenko and her family on a 2010 visit to Smila. Her father, Valeriy “Valera,” is a general merchandise entrepreneur; her mother’s name is Svetlana. Mishchenko has an older sister, Viktoriia “Vika,” who also went to the Lyceum and studied at the National University of Food Technologies in Kyiv; she is married and has a child.

On Monday, Mishchenko messaged me from Warsaw that her “heartbroken” mother, her sister and the child are out of Ukraine.

“My dad and Vika’s husband are not in shelters because they are fighting for our country,” Mishchenko wrote.

“Vika’s husband is without any warm clothes and any food” and was “in [the] same t-shirt for five days now.” She reported that he was stationed in Kyiv defending the house of parliament.

Mishchenko indicated how difficult it is for her to keep her mind on her studies. She said she can’t attend lectures at present as she’s the “only person who is able to make money for the whole family,” so she doesn’t have any other choice.

She has been working at a “nice” cafeteria in Poland and as an eyebrow stylist.

“My dad gave all the stuff they had at all of their stores for free to people,” she said.

This included groceries and other different items which people might need during their everyday lives, for housekeeping, gardening, school, etc. Her grandmother and grandfather gave everything they had at home.

Mishchenko said, “At my house in the center of Smila, my dad made a point where people prepare food for soldiers and refugees. At the beautiful house that my parents worked all their life for!”