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Support M's Journey at Charleston Southern University
M is a Ukrainian teenager whose education was disrupted by Russia's full-scale invasion. A full-tuition refugee scholarship has opened the door to college; help cover the room and board it does not include.
M is a Ukrainian teenage girl. We are not using her legal name or a real photograph on the advice of legal counsel because publicly identifying her could complicate her ongoing U.S. legal process.
M's story is inseparable from the story of Ukraine. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, her parents made the agonizing decision to put their young daughter on one of the first trains headed toward the Polish border. She fled her hometown with little more than she could carry, leaving behind her parents, her family, her home, and the life she had always known. The city she came from remains in Ukraine and continues to endure regular Russian attacks.
Relatives in the United States opened their home to M and eventually formally adopted her, giving her a safe place to rebuild a life that war had suddenly torn apart. She responded to that opportunity by working extraordinarily hard, excelling academically, serving others, and preparing herself for college.
Through a competitive essay process, M earned Charleston Southern University's Global Refugee Scholarship, which covers 100% of her tuition. It is an extraordinary opportunity, but the scholarship does not cover room and board. That leaves approximately $12,000 each year that her adoptive family must provide for her to attend.
Years of legal fees, the fight for refugee status, and the emergency adoption after her hometown was destroyed have completely depleted her adoptive parents' savings.
For those who have watched the war in Ukraine and wondered, "What can I personally do to help?" this is one tangible way. You can directly help a young Ukrainian whose education and future were disrupted by war complete the education she has worked so hard to earn.
Helping M attend college is more than meeting an immediate financial need. It is helping one young Ukrainian turn displacement into opportunity, education into service, and an extraordinarily difficult beginning into a brighter future.
By investing in M today, you are investing in a young Ukrainian determined to use her education to serve others, and in the brighter future that young Ukrainians like her are working to build.
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