The sirens blared across the city of Mukachevo. It was 3:00 AM in the city an hour away from the Slovakian and Hungarian borders in western Ukraine. A teenage Veniamin Kopyn and his family jumped out of their beds from the shrilling siren’s wail.

Kopyn ran to the TV and saw the images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At first, he thought it was a joke. But when rockets began to hit large cities like Kiev, the events became real.

During the first few months of the war, Kopyn remembers one particularly calm day. He sat in a classroom when, in the middle of the day, the sirens blared again. In an instant, he and 400 of his classmates ran to the school basement and packed into three large rooms. 

No rocket hit the school. No Russian military invaded the town. Those events and others showed how the threat of war was real, no matter where the front lines were. 

“You never know what can happen, if a rocket will fall or if Russians will come,” Kopyn said. “It was scary.” 

Kopyn’s dream had been to live in the United States ever since he visited an uncle in West Virginia as a 10-year-old. Six months after the war began, Kopyn, his mother, and his brother left Ukraine for the United States through the United for Ukraine program. His father, a Greek Catholic priest, remains in Ukraine. He has a tourist visa and can come every few months to visit. 

Kopyn’s family settled in Weirton, a small city in the small strip of West Virginia that separates Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

“From the minute we got here, everyone has been so nice,” Kopyn said. “They tried to find ways to help us and still do. They’re not afraid to ask you something, and I’ve made a lot of good friends here.” 

While attending Madonna High School, Kopyn also rediscovered his love for basketball. Schools in Ukraine don’t have teams like most American schools do, but Kopyn played for years on the street with his friends and received coaching from a neighbor. 

When he began attending Madonna, he asked to play on the team. It wasn’t long before the six-foot-five-inch Kopyn found a place on the varsity team. During his two years on the team, Kopyn played both forward positions and had some highlights, including a pair of three-pointers during a late-game appearance in his junior year. His coaches even took him and his teammates to see the University of Pittsburgh’s Men’s Basketball team play. It’s where he grew a love for Pitt Guard and NBA Player Carlton “Bub” Carrington. 

“We used to have three phrases on the board: trust, never give up, play until the end,” Kopyn said. “That’s what I always wanted to do playing the game.”

Kopyn first heard of Manor College from his aunt, Sister Theodora Kopyn, OSBM. Sister Theodora has been a Sister of Saint Basil the Great for more than 25 years and currently resides in the motherhouse adjacent to Manor College’s campus. 

This Fall, Kopyn begins his first semester at Manor College, where he’ll study Computer and Information Systems. 

“When I was in Ukraine, I went to one class where they were teaching you how to code, and I really liked it,” said Kopyn, who also studied in an online cybersecurity course last year. 

His motivation is fueled by a desire to help others. 

“Not a lot of people know how to work with computers,” Kopyn said. “I’m not sure where my career can go after this; you can work for the police, you can go into business fixing computers or building cyber security systems. Whatever I do, I know I can help people.”

Learn more about how students can find community and a stellar education at Manor College.