Kateryna Pakliachenko: Steadfast Faith

This Ukrainian-born RBC student has made lemonade out of life’s lemons.

By Sterling Giles

Over the last decade, the Russia-Ukraine war has ravaged thousands of lives. Kateryna Pakliachenko and her family were among those displaced by the conflict.

“You’re sitting in the basement, and you hear missiles that are near you and you understand that it can be your last minute,” Pakliachenko said.

Around the time she graduated from high school in 2022, the war escalated in intensity after Russia invaded Ukraine, which prompted Pakliachenko, her mother and her sister to seek refuge in Austria for several months. Her father couldn’t join them because all able-bodied men were required by law to stay in case they were needed to enlist in Ukraine’s armed forces.

Amid all the despair, eventually a glimmer of hope peeked through. An American family that helped with the planting of Pakliachenko’s church in Ukraine agreed to take her in so she could go to college in the U.S. She chose Richard Bland College of William & Mary (RBC) because of its unique iRBC International Student Success Program—which supports and empowers its global students—as well as the College’s proximity to her host family’s home in Chesterfield, Va.

Initially, the transition was rough for Pakliachenko. She hasn’t been able to see her family since she left Ukraine in December 2022. But RBC’s modest size, personable professors, supportive friends and church family encouraged her to come out of her shell.

“As time goes on, everything gets better,” she said. “I’ve started to open up and I feel free.”

Pakliachenko has been utilizing the Transfer Scholars Network to try to matriculate into an Ivy League school once she graduates in December. She’s also considering universities in Europe.