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December 2, 2005 (p.1 lead story)

Ukrainian hero and first year president Victor Yushchenko, his face still disfigured by the poison administered by opponents during the Orange Revolution, did not forget the Boston students he met this past spring, when he was honored with the 2005 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library.

With the arrival of the first anniversary of the Revolution, November 21, President Yushchenko recalled his meeting last spring with students at the Boston Day and Evening Academy (BDEA), who had been guests at the Profile in Courage Award. Yushchenko recently wrote to thank them for their letters and photographs, adding, "your desire to connect with the historical events which took place in Ukraine was the biggest reward for me."

With his letter, he sent BDEA a large flag and two small flags of Ukraine, a symbolic orange scarf with words of peace and several badges on it, two cassettes of Orange Revolutionary music, two booklets about the Revolution, and a Presidential photo.

Last spring, students at BDEA, a Pilot and Horace Mann Charter school for over-aged students, studied the Orange Revolution with a visiting Ukrainian student from Boston University. When the school learned of the Profile in Courage Award event, teacher and Ukrainian native Vladimir Olevsky, along with humanities department head James Liou, contacted the JFK Library, which set aside a section of seats for the BDEA students.

As the students sat among the invited guests, they heard library dignitaries and then Sen. Edward Kennedy talk about the award and the recipient, and they applauded as Caroline Kennedy presented the award to President Yushchenko.

For the students, the formal event with the hero they had just learned about was thrilling. Student Christine Benzevich, who presented President Yushchenko with a BDEA tee shirt, wrote to him, "We were very happy to be invited. We took pictures of the whole night and made a posterboard with pictures of us and all the events." The posterboard greets visitors at the entrance to the Roxbury school.

Other participating students were Jennette Afonseca, Justin Gaston, Erica Santos-Thomas, Percy Davis, Winston Tomescu, Fernanco Escobar, Aadam Mussawir, Ashaunta Bee and Andrea Lee-Sally.

Boston Day and Evening Academy is an alternative academic community specifically seeking to serve the educational needs of Boston public high school students who are over-age for their grade level, are parenting, have other personal needs, need to attend school in the evenings, or for whom other schools have not worked.

Front row: James Leak (Mattapan), Jennnette Afonseca (Dorchester), Christine Benzevich (Dorchester), Percy Davis (Dorchester)
Back row: Ashaunta Bee (Dorchester), Andrea Lee-Salley(Dorchester), Erica Santos-Thomas (Mattapan), Aadam Mussawir (Dorchester)

© 2005 Dorchester Community News