While most high school students probably would shake their heads at the thought of summer school, Andrew and Elissa Curr of Fort Frances can hardly wait to start.
Andrew, 14, and his sister, 17, left yesterday for the Mohyla Institute in Regina, Sask., where they’ll be immersed in the Ukrainian language and culture for a month.
The siblings, who sport a Ukrainian and Scottish heritage, are no strangers to the unique experience. While this summer will mark Andrew Curr’s first in Ukrainian immersion, he’s attended summer camp at Mohyla each year since the age of seven.
Elissa also has attended Mohyla for seven summers, with this one being her fourth consecutive in the immersion program.
“It was our family’s idea at first [to send us] but then we kinda went crazy. We fell in love with it, we have so much fun,” she said Friday.
“It’s given me a real taste of non-dependency–it’s changed me so much,” she added.
“I love the atmosphere. There’s so many interesting people there [and] you make a lot of friends,” echoed her brother. “It’s an awesome experience what you do.
“It’s all about having to play by everybody else’s rules [and] because of that, I’ve learned better control of my actions,” he reasoned. “I have better friends for it and I’ve learned how to keep them over a long period of time.
“And I’m culturally sound,” he smiled.
The immersion program includes language and grammar classes, arts, crafts, sports, swimming, and Ukrainian dancing and singing lessons.
Students are prohibited from bringing English language magazines, books, or music into the immersion program.
“But you do anyway,” he smiled. “Part of the thing is to see if you can get caught or not.”
The month-long course also counts as one high school credit for each of them but that’s not the only reward that will come out of it. After graduation, their grandfather, Michael Zaleschuk of Saskatoon, plans to take them on a two-week tour of the Ukraine starting Aug. 9.
The trio will travel with a Regina-based Ukrainian dance group, which plans three performances in that country.
Besides watching the performances, the Currs and Zaleschuk plan a little touring of their own, including to the historical city of Lviv, the region of “Iben Frankivisky” and a trip to the “Monastery of the Caves” in the Carpathian mountains.
“It’s important to remember where your roots are,” said Zaleschuk, who also is president of the national executive for the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League of Canada (USRL), under whose umbrella falls the Mohyla Institute and two others like it in Edmonton and Toronto.
“Everybody should maintain their mosaic–it makes [Canada] much more interesting and diverse,” he noted.
Andrew Curr said he was looking forward to shopping the diverse markets of the Ukraine, and to the purchase of a jersey bearing the logo of the Kiev soccer team.
“I want to go to the discotheques and all the shopping [places],” enthused Elissa Curr.
St. Anna’s Ukrainian Women’s Association of St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church here has helped fund the Currs’ tuition at the Mohyla Institute.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
