When many people worldwide began to learn more about Ukraine in early 2022 when the Ukraine-Russia war began, Columbus Bishop Watterson High School senior Ava Gruver was already well informed.
She began tutoring Ukrainian teens weekly in 2021 through a program called ENGin, and, except for a short pause when the conflict began, she continues the weekly sessions.
Gruver has spent about 60 hours tutoring three Ukrainian teens, working out times to meet on Zoom over email due to the seven-hour time difference. ENGin provides materials and matches up the tutors and Ukrainian students based on common interests.
“The Ukrainian teens are at different levels with their English; some are advanced, and some are beginners,” Gruver said. “I help them with their fluency based on their level of English, with topics like work, education, environment, social issues, debating, writing, holidays, family and other things.”
The ENGin lesson plans include discussions, articles, videos, games and quizzes. Sessions usually start with vocabulary terms related to the day’s lesson.
“The Ukrainian students all have different reasons for doing the program,” Gruver said. “For one girl, the school required it. Another wants to go into IT.
“A majority of them know Russian really well, and they’ve been taking English since kindergarten. Learning about America and England is a big part of their education. They want to move to Europe or America where they will need to know English.”
Since she started with the ENGin program, Gruver has observed the shift from a Ukraine at peace to a country at war through her sessions with the Ukrainian teens.
“For a long time, they didn’t go to school and spent their time laying low,” Gruver said. “It was surreal to me. There’s a bombing raid going on, and they’re online trying to learn English. That is still a priority.
“It’s interesting how they’re able to separate that and still focus on learning English. They did a pretty good job of not getting too emotional about it.”
Gruver was surprised that bomb shelters still exist and that it became normal to spend time in them for the Ukrainian teens.
“I would ask them how it was going with the war, and they’d say, ‘It’s so sad, there are a lot of deaths,’” she said. “I try not to be constantly talking about the war with them because it’s a sensitive subject, so I try to talk about other things.”
She has found common ground with the Ukrainian teens, talking about similar things American teenagers discuss.
“In America, we use a lot of polite small talk, but in Ukraine small talk isn’t a thing for them,” Gruver said. “But they are similar to American teenagers when it comes to things like hanging out with friends, having to do schoolwork, wanting to be a part of a group, having dreams about becoming a doctor or something like that. There’s also some humor that comes across.”
Another commonality for them is the shift out of high school. As the Ukrainian students move on to university studies, and Gruver moves on to Ohio State University to study neuroscience on a pre-veterinary track, she said they will continue to stay in touch, thanks to Instagram.