Anastasia Didenko, a junior at New Philadelphia Tuscarawas Central Catholic (TCC) High School, had bigger concerns on her mind as she took the ACT college readiness test on Tuesday morning.
While she is attending TCC as an exchange student this year, her parents and 12-year-old sister are living in an apartment building in Novomoskovsk, a city of about 70,000 people in east-central Ukraine.
She said that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started last Wednesday, they and about 50 other people have sought shelter in a basement of the building whenever they’ve heard the wail of air raid sirens announcing an air attack.
“I talked to them yesterday and later got a text saying they had to sleep in the basement again, as they’ve done many times since the invasion began,” she said in a telephone interview from the school Tuesday. “The closest any of the bombing has come is about 20 minutes from our home, but they can hear bombs going off and windows shattering.”
After taking the ACT test, Anastasia began preparing for a retreat being conducted for TCC’s sophomore, junior and senior classes Wednesday through Friday at the Damascus Catholic Mission Campus in Knox County.
“A lot of people say the retreat will be good for me,” she said. “I agree that I need the distraction. I need to do things here and to think of myself. I think it will be good to be away from school, breathe fresh air and try to think of what God wants me to do at a time like this.”
But she knows that won’t be easy.
“I am not here right now in my thoughts, but back in Ukraine,” she said. “I can’t sleep well. I can’t do anything without thinking of my family. It’s hard to concentrate, so paying attention to the ACT questions was a real challenge. It’s the longest I’ve put my phone down since the invasion began, and I’ll have to do it even longer at the retreat. No one in Ukraine knows what’s going to happen in the next 15 minutes.”
Her father is a lawyer, and her mother is an accountant. They were in different cities when the invasion began, but her mother was able to return to the family on Thursday. “That was a great relief,” she said.
“My father has been in the army. He is in line to be called up and is ready to serve,” she said. “No one is going to work unless they are in the government. They’re just preparing themselves and trying to do everything possible to be ready for an attack.”
Anastasia said she first heard of the invasion while preparing to go to sleep Wednesday.
“Friends texted me and said they were hearing planes and explosions,” she said. “I called my dad immediately, and he said, ‘Everything’s OK. Go to sleep.’ Then in the next 30 minutes, everything changed. Everyone was awake all over Ukraine.”
TCC students and other young people have mobilized to help the people of Ukraine. A dress-down day organized by the school’s senior class officers raised more than $1,400 for the CARE Ukraine Crisis Fund on Monday. Students were asked to wear clothes in the yellow-and-blue colors of the Ukrainian flag rather than their regular uniforms. The school also is praying a novena for peace in Ukraine.
Tuscarawas County’s two parochial grade schools, TCC Elementary in Dover and Immaculate Conception in Dennison, have joined in the novena and fundraiser. A post on the TCC Facebook page reads, “Our hearts break for her, her family, her friends, and her country. … Some of her friends have already been put in refugee camps. Please pray for Anastasia, her family, and Ukraine.”
Students of the Conotton Valley school district at Bowerston in Harrison County organized four days of fundraisers to support Anastasia, including a dress-down day similar to the one at TCC. The New Philadelphia school recently had a dress-down event to benefit the families of Conotton Valley students involved in a fatal car crash two weeks ago.
Bobby Eddy and Heather Jones of Bolivar are Anastasia’s host parents. A hair salon in Bolivar where Jones works is collecting items for Ukraine to be sent to a humanitarian group in New York.
Anastasia is in Ohio through the Future Leaders Exchange Program funded by the U.S. State Department. The program provides scholarships so that high school students from Europe and Asia can spend an academic year in the United States.
“She is an exceptional student, strong and inspirational,” said TCC principal Jennifer Calvo. “It’s remarkable to watch her be so knowledgeable and poised. I told her she didn’t have to take the ACT today because two radio stations and The Catholic Times wanted to talk to her, but she said no, she wanted to speak. We’re doing whatever we can to support her physically and spiritually.”
Calvo said Anastasia is a cheerleader and a member of the school’s Academic Challenge team and is considering joining the track team.