The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 44 with Guest, Founding Rector of American University Kyiv, Dr. Roman Sheremeta
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deductible so we are very excited for today's guest today's guest is the founding director
of American University Kyiv he's also the professor of Economics at Case
Western Reserve in the co-chair of Ukrainian American house
please join me in welcoming to the show Mr. Roman Sheremeta thank you for joining
us well thank you for having me absolutely so for our audience uh
we'll get to kind of present state but maybe we could turn back the clock to you know last February when you
started to receive word from friends family colleagues in Ukraine and then
how the unfortunate atrocities and the things that are happening what made you
want to get involved in a big way yes so just to start the this I want
to let you know and just the listeners to put themselves in my shoes
so it’s the end of 2021 I was
approached by an enthusiastic team of leaders who wanted to open American
University in Kyiv and I started the conversations with my Dean with my uh
Provost the president of Case Western and they gave me a permission to take a leave of absence so that I can work with
this team to open American University in Kyiv this is all prior the war, so I moved to Kyiv, and I started going back
and forth and found an apartment and in 2022 on February
23rd I was still in Kyiv okay so I
took the last flight out of Kyiv literally the well it was the flight before the last there were two flights
and I took the flight before the last to Istanbul and then from there I flew to the United States in the morning and
then in the evening in the evening I already found that the Russia has launched the full-scale
invasion of Ukraine and so City where I was stationed in Kyiv was already
surrounded it was a devastating moment for me because I did not believe that this war
would start I actually that same day I believe I was giving an interview it was
either fox or CBS and I was telling them that I don't believe that Russia is
going to make such a stupid move as to attack Ukraine because they will never be able to win this war but obviously I
was wrong and so my family and friends and people that I know became
in Jeopardy of literally being you know annihilated because the Russia
from the very beginning stated very clearly what their objectives were and that was just to get rid of the country
and replace the country with you know for well diversify it right to
make everybody Russians and this was clearly stated in real news the official
Russian channels who can mention that many times despite all of the false narratives that they were trying to
portray I knew that the real danger was that you know my family my relatives or
everybody at risk you know because they were fairly active Ukrainian citizens and so that's
the first Target for the Russians who were capturing more and more territory of Ukraine so obviously as a
individual human being first of all who was helping Ukraine in the first place and just seeing the they did this
Injustice being done I couldn't stay idle and so and I was working still
on opening and working to build American University in Kyiv but
obviously, we had to switch to more online format and do our work remotely
but meanwhile I also became a co-chair of American of Ukrainian American house
which basically a humanitarian NGO organization that has been funneling and
bringing help to Ukrainian people I've brought help individually to the front
line to the hospitals I've been many times since Kyiv was liberated, I've been back to Ukraine many times and
continued to do so in fact I'll be going in two weeks and just last week I was in Ukraine, so my life is now split in these
two worlds I'm right now in peaceful wonderful Cleveland Ohio and you know
two weeks from now I hope that you know I will be in a more peaceful
Ukraine but again that's something I cannot predict because Russia can launch rockets even
at Key of at any given time and so you can hear explosions in the in the in the distance so that's the world that I live
right now and I'm really grateful for everyone who didn’t stay idly back and instead
they basically did everything they could to help the people in any manner
somebody donated some money Somebody went and did some volunteering work somebody
sent a letter to the congressman or to the governor or to the senator I mean every single thing and somebody just
raised their voice which is already a big effort so to those of you who are
with us in this fight for Freedom democracy and Justice I want to thank you you're welcome and what you're
doing yeah, you're a truly humanitarian I try to be and what I do but
you are a true humanitarian helping in in so many fronts if you could give a
little bit of maybe the emotional side of being in a country that is like you
said at any given moment with the drones and that could be it could be bombed and
friends and family and the trauma that that goes on and you know the life
that we have here in the United States and in Cleveland, Hudson, and Stow
where we're filming you know we're lucky in in that that we don't have
to worry as much yeah about those types of things could you maybe address that a little bit yeah, so life is very
different when you watch something on a TV and it's devastating and you see
the destroyed buildings homes people lives but as soon as you move, and you come
to Ukraine and you see that air raid Cyrene that is go off and basically
notifying you that the missiles are flying in your direction and in half an
hour there could be an impact if the enter if the air defense systems are not going to take it down you actually watch
the clock if you sit in the office and you sit next to the window you know you're just watch outside your window
right now where you're sitting and you're thinking wow this is peaceful it doesn't matter what the weather is but
it's just you know you're not expecting that something is going to explode, and your window is going to blow out and hit
your face and so in that moment you actually subconsciously start worrying and you move to the middle of the house
because you know that's probably a safer place if you can't go to the basement my
dad celebrated his birthday in the basement in 2022this year he
actually celebrated it you know in his on the first floor of his house
so it was but again it was it was a very different world and very taxing on your
brain so you think you're constantly under this pressure that something can happen and so that definitely impacts
your psychological well-being and the amount of the PTSD that will come not only from the soldiers but also from the
regular citizens is incredible and so this is a this is in itself is going to
be a huge humanitarian catastrophe in the project for the world to help out is just how to deal with this much
emotional trauma I mean to be honest personally for the first two weeks I was depressed I
was really depressed I didn't want to do anything and sometimes it still hits me you know like I think about some
things and it's just like it does hit you quite a lot and so you but you
the way that I found to the way to deal with this is by actually helping other people it's um
probably one of the most effective strategy that you find that hey you know
you're not alone a lot of people struggle in this world and some struggle way more than you do so you should be
grateful for what you have and if you can help somebody to alleviate their pain in any way possible that's the way
to go and so you know I found that for myself to be a very strong and
effective coping strategy so part of I mean I'll tell you as is you know part
of that in turn effort came as a sort of selfish desire to just do something
and feel better about myself because I would not be able to live with myself if I didn't do anything you know so
um the interesting thing another interesting thing is the resilience of people and just the resilience of human
mind is you look at people today who have been living in these sort of
conditions for so long it's very interesting to observe that they have learned how to adapt
you go to Kyiv, and I'll be there in two weeks, and I'll tell you what I'll see I'll see streets full of people I'll see
coffee shops open I see people hanging out and walking on the street and somebody will say well how is that
possible why they're all not on the front line well because there's no need for everybody to be in the front line at
least at the current stage and you know the there's a rotation military rotation they have enough uh
people on the front line to stop the Russian advancements which they've been able to do not only that but also do the
counter-offensives and then at the same time you know you need to be able to
continue to live even despite the War and so you need to also be able to
build the economy and have economic dealings because without that there is
no economy without economy there is no defense sector you won't be able to sustain the defense of Ukraine so this
is how it is right now and it's a really you know really resilient Nation what
I found about Ukrainian’s absolutely and you yourself you're Ukrainian so
right so you're not you’re not an outsider per person right
yeah, but you have to realize that most of most of my kind of conscious life I did live in the United States, so I was
born in Ukraine and I moved here when I was twenty. and so for 20 years I lived in the United States I'm a citizen of the
US so but yes of course I mean Ukraine and my parents are still in Ukraine my brother is in Ukraine my
uncle my uncles my aunt so basically everybody are there
what’s besides how one in peace and Russia out and all the territory to
be where it belongs with Ukraine what do what do people citizens of
Ukraine well do they want to besides all the military needs and wants what
type of message do they do they want to send because I get the and gotten the sense that like you mentioned very
strong resilient people that really are looking at some some obviously war
crimes but you know looking at some awful scenes and they're able like I said they're able to
compartmentalize that a little bit and go on the best that they can yeah so
that that's the question that comes to the values right so what are the values that which you want to build your life
and what's the most important things for you right so that's how we were built as
a nation I mean by Americans we have in the Constitution and the collaboration of Independence everywhere like the life
liberty Pursuit of Happiness those are sort of the things that we really value in the individual Choice the
people to have freedoms to choose and so for Ukraine today the most important
value is freedom right it’s it is what they have been fighting for three hundred
years more so people who probably not that very familiar with Russian
Ukrainian relationship this is not a war that happened out of the blue Russia has been trying to conquer Ukraine for three hundred
years and especially the last hundred years were very brutal where Russia has
a systematically commit a genocide actions against Ukrainian people there was this
artificial famine called Holodomor where they literally tried to starve and they
were able to successfully kill four and a half million Ukrainian’s so this is just from starvation and it's it
happened in 1932 it was right now pretty much most civilized countries have acknowledged that as a genocide
action of the Soviet Union at that time which was primarily Russia-driven Uh
Russian Empire right and so basically that fight for Freedom we are
different people very different we are have very different values we value individualism we value Freedom we value
um things that you know are very aligned with the typical American
world view and so that's why for us America is such a big partner and
European countries but very specifically America in this fight for its own independence of course it was 250 years
ago but today that's what Ukraine is going through and so that is what
Ukrainian people want most of all it's like give me a liberty or give me death right so that's sort of the stance that
Ukrainian’s are taking today now that being said of course we want peace I mean don't get me wrong everybody wants
peace but it cannot come at the expense of losing your Liberty it cannot come at
the expense at allowing Russians to commit genocide on the territories that they already captured because what will
happen they already have I mean trust me this is not propaganda this is first-hand account I know people who
have been captured and been in Russian prison camps I've personally spoken to the eyewitnesses, and I've heard
things that I'm probably not even gonna say here on the station because it's an it's a traumatic it's gonna it's not
gonna allow you to sleep and so and that's what's happening right now on the capture territories then amount of
torture and the things that Ukrainian people are going through is just horrific and we cannot allow that
to happen especially in the 21st century so you know that negotiation that
peace cannot come at any price if it’s you know if it's at the cost of
Liberty and freedom that's not a piece and so that’s why I'm probably
gonna stop there because it is the most important thing Ukrainian’s are fighting for and that's one thing that will
dictate pretty much the outcome of this war which you know no doubtedly, and I mean I can guarantee you that
Ukraine will win Russia will not be able to win this war because it's the people who are fighting for their independence
that's it yeah so, the recent report was you know president XI from China
reached out and was able to just be President Zielinski uh
how do you think China's influence because there's mixed
views about them and wanting to help and who they're really trying to support trying to be that Global leader what
what's kind of your viewpoint on that yeah so China is taking a very safe
position they're trying to basically be friends to both sides on the one hand they cannot you know they cannot well they cannot support Russia openly because that will trigger the
Western response and they cannot lose West as its base for products for uh
markets for Investments so that's not a possibility now at the same time you
know China is uh China is trying to make sure that
they make a good deal with Russia because it's an opportunity Russia is giving
them very cheap resources and they can make a lot of money because of this Russia doesn't have a market for its oil
and gas anymore at least it shrinks substantially you just yesterday I was talking to German Consular in Miami
and he was just saying that look Germany is done for with Russia for its any
fossil fuels they buy zero of them you know both on the gas and on the and
the and on the natural gas and oil and you have to understand that
historically Germany had a very close ties with Russia, so Russia lost all
of these markets and so China can profit by creating a market with Russia and they will do that, and they will do that
as long as they are allowed to do that so that being said China is trying to
play Both Sides they are no friends to America by no means there are no
friends to Euro by no means they are trying to be a separate dominant force in this world but at the same time
they are deterred by the West obviously and so that's why I don't believe that
they for example will go and actually you know Supply weapons to Russia that's
not gonna happen but they will not support Ukraine either and so basically
um you know China is just gonna try to see what they can make out of this war that will be to their advantage and so
we as the West we have to keep an eye on this keep a pressure in China because if
China were to make some significant statement in support of Ukraine and against Russia I think that would be a
very important step towards de-escalation and sort of Russia realizing okay we're done there is no
hope for us and we should wrap it up as soon as possible but as far as it
is right now it's still not possible yeah and yeah pivoting a little bit but not much
because you were already in in the works in 20 2021workingon the
American University in Kyiv how important just you personally is education, teaching, and knowledge
and what's kept you know up until this point you know having an interest on one of teaching and
influence and positively influence others no thank you for this question
absolutely that’s that is such an important point is that you know my life
I have dedicated to investing the human capital to build human capital to
develop human capital I had a choice in my life you know what careers to take
and I’ve you know ended up becoming an economist an educator a scientist who
uh learns the new ideas but not just new ideas I learn new ideas about human
human behavior that's really at the core of my research has been and then uh
slowly I moved more and more into executive roles in education I was a
director for our MBA programs at Case Western and whether it was full of management where you were very
familiar with isn't that alumni So this has been you know a sort of a
progression in my life because I do believe that it is through education that we can impact people change their
world view their minds and the most important thing that I can do right now
is to train the Future Leaders of Ukraine and that's exactly what we are doing with American University Cube uh
we are training the leaders that will be transforming the country we're building
the country moving in in the right direction and they think that that's the
you know the most important thing that I can do in my life yeah so how can how
can our audience help Ukraine from you know whether it's monetary
donation actual Aid what would maybe the you know the individual by
themselves without being part of an organization what can they do can they direct them to some ways yeah so
let's go through a couple of the things that we can personally do something that I've been doing, and I would encourage everyone to do first of all it’s
just standing with Ukraine just having a support and not falling for some propaganda narratives that you know are
you know you once you get to know Ukrainians like me like anybody else, you'll find that we are not Nazis that
we are not you know some sort of corrupt Nation I mean we are
fighting against that we are that's why we elected completely new president who
came out of nowhere you know this guy who had a role of a comedian because we
wanted no we didn't want to have an old system corrupt system running our country so that's why you have to
understand that that we are just people who want to you know be free be have a liberty our freedom and so
standing with us that's already speaks volume now you can do that in many ways you can do it by raising your voice on
your own social media when you talk to people when you write letters to your
congressman and Senator and the selections come out you know you can
vote in a particular way that will be aligned with your values I don't want to compromise those for you know if you
are either Republican or Democrat and stand for your values but even but in both parties, we have a fairly
significant portion of parties that are it's a bipartisan support of Ukraine and
so you can find candidates that still stand for your values but also support Ukraine and stand against this Russian
genocide which I would never vote for a candidate who doesn't support Ukraine that already speaks volume for who they
are as an individual because if you see evil and you do nothing about it well that speaks volume, I love the quote Hero
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor from who stood against Hitler he said that and that silence in the face of evil is evil itself, but God will not help us
hold us Guiltless if we are silent to not to speak is to speak not to act
is to act and that's sort of the motto for my personal life is that I see some
great Injustice being done, and I want to do and say and help in any way possible
so that's one way the second way is of course we can basically you donate to different causes we can donate through you know I am a
chair of Ukrainian American house I'm a founder of American University Kyiv these are the organizations that
literally help people one is providing humanitarian Aid the other one is building human capital is building
the future generation and we have partnered with iie which is basically the biggest the biggest scholarship organization
that provides scholarships for the students all over the world, and we just wanted to be very transparent that
all every single dollar every single amount that is donated goes to the
student who lost their parents and want to pursue a University degree but they
cannot because you know that they don't have means for that or veterans or
people that just you know are not financially capable to get their degrees and you know trust me the price stack on
the Ukrainian education is way cheaper than it is at Case Western so
you can for one year less than one year tuition you can
get the whole four-year ride at American University Kyiv so it’s a great
return on the investment from that perspective so you can donate and again either you don't have to the
American University key or Ukrainian American house it can be some other organization that you trust I trust
these organizations because I'm a part of them yes so obviously I know everywhere every dime goes there but and
the third thing of course if you actually I'm gonna say two more things but the third thing is that if you
wanted to actually do some work on the ground please get in touch with me we
constantly bring teams to Ukraine in fact in two weeks I'm gonna be coming with a team of 15 Americans those are
mostly businessmen and people that actually are trying to help with demining and the att's
coming with us so but the point is that you know you can go, and you can
do some work on the ground through a Ukrainian American house just today we launched a new initiative where we teach
Ukrainian kids English by using the volunteers from the United States so hey
you know this is a great way you can volunteer to teach English and then you build a system that allows you to do
that so you can do actually you know the manual work on the ground for helping to rebuild Ukraine and finally the third or
the fourth one if you're a business if you are actually a company and you're thinking about good ways to invest your
money I mean I would encourage you to consider Ukraine to we creating a
platforms and including through Ukrainian American house where we try to link the American and Ukrainian business
together and create synergies the return on investment is going to be way higher
in Ukraine in that it is in the United States because a US is just you know already very developed economy Ukraine
pretty much any contribution will be in in terms of expected growth is going to
be five six percent the GDP growth over the next you know ten years so it's uh
it is a much more lucrative investment opportunity yes it comes with the risk but that's why you can partner
and have you know specific guarantees that come today from
different institutions that are invested in Ukraine and so again if
you're a business out considers I would just urge you to consider that as an option so here are the four practical
ways that anybody can join and choose in which way they can support us
thank you so much for sharing those ways as I know there's many like you said you're involved on
the on the boots on the ground level so you know where the money goes and what it's for and so being able to speak
to that it speaks volumes those are all the questions that I had today
so I’ll close out the show and then if you stick around don't close out of
the zoom and ask you something offline so yeah thank
you so thank you our audience for joining us for this episode of the voices for
voices TV show and podcast and a huge thank you to our special guests Mr. Roman
Sheremeta for spending some time with us today so until next time I am
Justin Alan Hayes have a great day and be a voice for you or somebody in need.
Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate
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