Latitudes: How 2 Stanford Students Helped Make a Difference in Ukraine

The pair of business-school students made it their mission to get ambulances to a frontline city. Plus, this week’s news. ADVERTISEMENT [Latitudes Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. ‘Project Independence Day’ After two days of driving from Budapest, Andrei Molchynsky, a student at Stanford University’s Graduate Student of Business, had finally made it to the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih when he encountered a group of soldiers. They talked for nearly two hours, as the troops shared stories from the front lines, less than 20 miles away. “Seeing the look in their eyes, their faces, that was very cleansing,” Molchynsky said. “It gave energy and motivation, and cleared any fatigue I may have had. It was inspiring.” Molchynsky had lived in Ukraine until moving to Canada with his family at age 13. Now he was back in his homeland — in his hometown — as part of a humanitarian mission organized with a Stanford classmate, Alex Clark, a former infantry officer in the U.S. Army and a graduate of West Point. The pair had met, in Clark’s words, “over stiff drinks and cigars,” and had found common cause in their desire, and perhaps inability, to not sit idly by as the Russian invasion of Ukraine dominated the news during their first year of business school. Molchynsky had helped other Ukrainian students at Stanford organize an airlift of insulin and other humanitarian supplies, and now he and Clark were looking for other ways they could help. Access to health care was an obvious need that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had emphasized when he spoke to Stanford students via Zoom. What if Molchynsky and Clark could purchase and deliver ambulances to a battered community? They were able to track down three decommissioned emergency vehicles in neighboring Hungary — but they needed $100,000 to buy them. The pair set to raising funds, with Molchynsky turning to Ukrainian sources and Clark to his fellow veterans. Within two months, they had surpassed their goal, collecting $125,000, enough to also purchase radios and encrypted-communications equipment. In August they set out for Budapest, joined by several other graduate-student volunteers, from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Michigan. They dubbed their mission [Project Independence Day]( because they hoped to deliver the supplies in time for Ukraine’s Independence Day, on August 24. They found two of the ambulances in good working condition, but the third had to be left behind in Budapest for additional repairs. The drive to Kryvyi Rih involved multiple checkpoints and roadblocks. They saw soldiers and trenches that had been dug. Helicopters flew overhead, and sometimes they could hear the sounds of artillery fire. It was not the homecoming Molchynsky had imagined: “It felt like an unfamiliar place yet so familiar.” The pair are now back at Stanford for the fall term, after a second roundtrip to Budapest to retrieve and deliver the final ambulance. Molchynsky is now working on a project to help provide telehealth services to Ukrainians. He and Clark said that even if college students can’t run an on-the-ground humanitarian mission, they could do other things to [support Ukraine]( such as organizing teach-ins or lobbying their members of Congress on its behalf. Clark said the experience in Ukraine is likely to affect his career path after he graduates next spring, although he isn’t precisely sure how. Like Molchynsky, he keeps returning to the conversations he had in Kryvyi Rih, with people who were living their lives, sometimes joyfully, yet with a constant threat just miles south. “Those are realities of life,” he said, “that should never be forgotten.” ADVERTISEMENT Around the globe Prosecutors will [appeal]( a judge’s ruling that dismissed [three out of four convictions]( against a former University of Kansas researcher accused of hiding his ties to China. Despite the challenges faced by international students during the pandemic, the number of [doctorates awarded to temporary visa holders]( fell 4.5 percent in 2021, a much more modest decline than the 8.1-percent drop in Ph.D.s earned by Americans. Another state has enacted legislation governing colleges’ foreign ties: Starting in July, Louisiana colleges must [report]( contracts or gifts from overseas sources above $50,000 and screen visiting scholars and international graduate students. A federal judge has ruled that a group of Chinese students [cannot sue to block]( the Biden administration from enforcing a Trump-era executive order that [denies U.S. student visas]( to graduates of Chinese universities that are believed to have ties to the country’s military or security services. The National Institutes of Health is seeing fewer cases of research-disclosure problems, and more cases are being [self-reported]( by colleges or researchers, an agency official said during a recent meeting on threats to U.S.-China research collaboration. The meeting was organized by the Asia Society and the University of California at Berkeley. Consular officers should be trained to understand that attending a program to learn academic English is a valid reason to receive a visa to study in the United States, urged EnglishUSA, an association of English-language programs, in a set of [recommendations]( to federal policy makers. A coalition of student leaders and legal scholars is proposing that the 10 University of California campuses begin [employing undocumented students](. Higher-education leaders in Britain are breathing a sigh of relief at the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose administration had threatened to [impose new oversight]( of student visas. The Taliban has barred female students in Afghanistan from studying a number of [subjects]( including economics, engineering, and journalism. The Institute of International Education is opening its [emergency student fund]( to aid students affected by flooding in Pakistan or the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. I talked with Brooke Roberts, host of the [Gateway Spotlight podcast]( about reporting on international education. SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. And finally … It’s not your eyes: This week’s newsletter is shorter than usual. That’s because I’m off on an international reporting trip, my first since just before Covid-19 broke out. I’ll be back next week with tidbits from my travels — I’ll be saving the meatiest observations for an article that will appear in the coming weeks, of course! By the time you read this, I’ll be heading from Accra, Ghana, to Dakar, Senegal. Your travel recommendations, insights into student recruitment in Africa and other emerging markets, and suggestions of last-minute book or entertainment downloads for the long flight(s) back to California are all most welcome! Please let me know of any news or developments I missed while I was away. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line, at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on [Twitter]( or [LinkedIn](. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can [sign up here](. Thank you for reading. 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