The charity I’m highlighting this week is one very close to my heart for a couple of reasons. First, I’ll give a brief explanation about Karelian Scholarship Fund along with who is behind this awesome organization. Lastly, I’ll try really hard to briefly explain how I came to know about it, and why I will forever be grateful I responded to that forwarded email!
When I asked my friend and the founder of Karelian Scholarship Fund, Donald Gould, to give me a few sentences summarizing the purpose of his non-profit, he sent me the following:
The Karelian Scholarship Fund, now in its 8th year, raises money to help Russian students realize their dream of going to college. By American standards, the cost of a university education in Russia is small, but is still beyond the reach of many young Russians. For a modest contribution, a person can help to change the futures for many young Russians, and to give them a chance at a rich and rewarding life.
As of today, eleven students are receiving an education solely on KSF. Two students have already graduated because of the KSF and three students will be graduating this year!
Petrozavodsk is the capital of the Republic of Karelia and it is also where I was stationed while I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1999-2001. I witnessed first-hand how the educational system worked and was often troubled by the discrimination students from the villages and the orphanages faced, especially regarding opportunities for higher education. It was either Sasha or Nastia who told me one of their teachers said, “you are just an orphanage kid so we aren’t going to spend much time on you.” As much as I know I shouldn’t use generalities, from my experience working in the Teacher Retraining Institute, thereby working with a lot of teachers from the villages and in the cities, I would have to say that philosophy rang true in many of the schools and with many of the teachers. The KSF has truly been a Godsend for the students who wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to attend college.
How did I find out about this life changing organization?
In 2003, I got a forwarded email from one of my buddies (ShannonJ) who served with me and it was from Don Gould, looking for PC volunteers who served in Petrozavodsk. He was hoping to find support from fellow Americans who knew the area of Russia he had visited (I think he visited Petrozavodsk for the first time after I had already left) and was compelled to help the Russian students in that area by creating a scholarship fund. When I read his email, I had just recently qualified for the Boston Marathon so I thought maybe I could use my running to help his cause. Coincidentally, Don is from Wayland, Massachusetts (close to the start of the race). I told him I could try and raise money for his organization by running Boston, so in 2003 I ran and raised money for KSF for the first time. But the story doesn’t stop there!
I met Don and his wife for dinner when I went to Boston that year and I told him about all of my mass emails I had written to my friends and family while I served in Petrozavodsk. He is/was so fond of that area of Russia, he wanted to read my emails. This is the best part … get ready for this because it still blows my mind. So a month or so after I completed the marathon, Don calls me and tells me he finished reading my emails and inquired about Nastia and Sasha’s best friends who were still in the orphanage. He then told me he and his wife had discussed the possibility of adopting Lena and Katya (Sasha and Nastia’s best friends) and had come to the decision they were going to go through with it! Not only did I immediately start crying, I think I fell out of my chair. It’s hard to explain why to this day, I still can’t believe what a miracle it all turned out to be. When I adopted Sasha and Nastia, I will never forget the trip I made back to Russia to bring Sasha and Nastia home with me and how sad their friends were, especially their best friends. Stupidly, I told Katya I would try and find someone to adopt her (Katya, if you’re reading this, do you remember that?). So that’s why it hit me so hard…to this day I still get emotional. The next year, I ran the Boston Marathon again, and that year, I stayed with Don and Dee…and Katya and Lena were there as well (and Sasha and Nastia were with me!).
KSF is close to my heart because I completely understand its necessity through personal experience. It will forever be close to my heart because responding to that forwarded email set off a chain of events way beyond my control and led two Russian girls (now incredible young women) to an amazing family. Thank You God for stopping me from deleting that email!
How can we get involved?:
The website is great! You not only get a nice geography lesson as to the whereabouts of the Republic of Karelia, but you can also learn about the differences between the educational systems of Russia versus the USA, why receiving a higher education is so important for Russians and lastly, just how much a little bit from here goes a long way there!
If you are able and interested, send a donation.
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
~Sydney J. Harris
One of the reasons I adopted Sasha and Nastia (other than that I love them) is I felt they would have more educational opportunities here. On the homepage of KSF you will see its mission simply put: “helping students help themselves.”
