Learner Spotlight: Meet Tetiana
We invite you to meet Tetiana F., our featured student this month in our “Learner Spotlight”. Featured adult learners represent the Literacy Council’s programs, including authors from Reflections: Voices of English Learners, the Literacy Council’s literary magazine, as well as adult learners in other programs. Tetiana F. contributed her story to the sixth edition.
My name is Tetiana F. I was born in the western part of Ukraine, but for the last 18 years, I have lived in Kyiv. I am a single mother of a daughter named Sofiia. When we arrived in the U.S.A. because of the War, the Literacy Council helped me improve my English, especially my writing skills, which I later used in further learning.
When we arrived in the U.S.A. because of the War, the Literacy Council helped me improve my English, especially my writing skills, which I later used in further learning. Now I am studying in college to get a certificate in computerized accounting. I hope that the War in Ukraine will finish soon, and we will not have to worry anymore about our family, relatives, friends, and all Ukrainians.
We hope you enjoy Tetiana’s written works: “First Three Days”, “Progress Requires Sacrifice”, and “Our Clothes”. View all of our students’ stories on our Reflections: Voices of English Learners web page. Below is an excerpt from one of Tetiana’s articles.
“First Three Days”
Rumors of the War had been circulating actively since late 2021. Most of the population did not believe in that or could not imagine that the war would be against the civilian people. That’s why everyone was shocked in the first days. No one could imagine such a terrible War. The 24th of February divided the lives of Ukrainians into “before” and “after.”
When the president of the United States announced that the War would begin on February 17th, I decided to
leave Kyiv on that day. My parents live in Western Ukraine. So, my eleven-year-old daughter Sofiia and I went there. But the War had not started then. I had to work in Kyiv. Therefore, I came back home on February 19th, but I left Sofiia with my parents for the next two weeks.
Read more of “First Three Days” along with Tetiana’s other works on pages 61-64, and more student stories from our 6th edition of Reflections.