{"id":16456,"date":"2023-10-03T12:38:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T12:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=16456"},"modified":"2023-10-04T12:41:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:41:06","slug":"student-serves-as-humanitarian-aid-volunteer-in-ukraine-while-taking-online-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2023\/10\/03\/student-serves-as-humanitarian-aid-volunteer-in-ukraine-while-taking-online-classes\/","title":{"rendered":"Student serves as humanitarian aid volunteer in Ukraine while taking online classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on September 22, 2023 on news.fiu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Patricia C\u00e1rdenas<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last spring,\u00a0Tudor Parfitt<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>professor of Religious Studies at the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, met Nicholas Dore, an International Relations student in his senior year. Dore could not get to his first class on religion and society in the Middle East in person and requested the chance to attend online.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent him an email,\u201d Dore shared, \u201csaying, \u2018Professor, I’m so sorry, I won’t be able to make it to class. I’m in Bakhmut, Ukraine.\u2019 And I think he said it was in all his years of teaching one of the craziest excuses he had ever received.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dramatic first meeting,\u201d\u00a0Parfitt said.\u00a0\u201cThat very day, the news reports were full of the bloody fighting around Bakhmut. I wondered what kind of student would be spending his school vacation in such a place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dore became interested in volunteering in Ukraine when Russia first invaded the country in February 2022. He volunteered from May to September before returning to FIU in fall to attend classed in person. He has since gone back to Ukraine twice and is currently volunteering while taking courses online for his double major in international relations and religious studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to lend a helping hand to the Ukrainian people,\u201d Dore explains. \u201cLike most people, I was just seeing it all unfold on the news. And then President Zelensky said, \u2018We need people to come and fight for us. We need people to come to do medical work, humanitarian work, all types of help.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Ukraine, Dore has volunteered with\u00a0Base UA<\/a>, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization (NGO) helping with civilian evacuations in the region. He has worked in its mobile clinic, which provides medical care to civilians near the front line, and delivered food and medicine to those who cannot evacuate or choose to remain in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll go to wherever they request from. Usually these are places that are being hit by artillery,\u201d Dore said. \u201cWe’ll usually bring them back to a shelter in one of the cities behind the front line or put them on an evacuation train, and it’ll take them to Kyiv or anywhere they might want to go. Our biggest thing is just getting them out of the hot zone and getting them back to a shelter or an evacuation train.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just very hard to explain to people how it feels that every second of your life you’re worried about something falling on top of you like a missile or something like that. There\u2019s no United Nations, there’s no Red Cross. This is the front lines between Russia and Ukraine. So, the only ones that can help out are the small NGOs, like the one I volunteer with,\u201d Dore explains.<\/p>\n

This summer, Dore also participated in\u00a0Project Aladdin,<\/a>\u00a0an international\u00a0two-week study abroad program<\/a>\u00a0which aims to fight extremism and bigotry through lectures, workshops and discussions. Dore was invited to a session in Istanbul, Turkey, where he and his fellow students discussed the impact of ecological disasters on fractured societies. He said the experience was enriching and nurtured unique discussions and intercultural exchanges.<\/p>\n

Currently in his final semester at FIU, Dore plans to continue his studies and is interested in pursuing a master\u2019s program in Russian or Slavic studies. He credits the support and guidance of his mentors at the Green School, like professors\u00a0Naisy Sarduy<\/a>,\u00a0Carlos Grenier<\/a>\u00a0and Parfitt, for keeping him on a solid path to his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t even just explain everything that he’s done for me,\u201d says Dore about Parfitt. \u201cI value it so much. I’ve really been able to take a huge step forward, not only personally, but in my career because of him. I value his mentorship very much, and I’ll continue to do so.”<\/p>\n

\u201cNicholas is a rare individual indeed,\u201d says Parfitt. \u201cI haven\u2019t had many students like him. Had he been born earlier, he would have volunteered on the correct side in the Spanish Civil War. He puts his ideals above everything. It has been a privilege to know him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dore says the most rewarding part of his time volunteering has been the kindness reciprocated by those whom he has helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’ve probably seen their home for the last time,\u201d he explained \u201cThey’ve seen it destroyed in flames. Just seeing that smile on their faces when you bring them to the evacuation train or to the shelter has definitely been the most rewarding thing I’ve gotten from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I’ve found my calling in life over here, and I\u2019m moved by the Ukrainian people and just how strong they are and their resilience during these difficult times. It’s kept me motivated to just keep going no matter how hard things get.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on September 22, 2023 on news.fiu.edu Written by Patricia C\u00e1rdenas   Last spring,\u00a0Tudor Parfitt,\u00a0professor of Religious Studies at the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, met Nicholas Dore, an International Relations student in his senior year. Dore could not get to his first class on religion and society in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[573,575,574,571,572],"class_list":["post-16456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","tag-nicholas-dore","tag-project-aladdin","tag-the-steven-j-green-school-of-international-public-affairs","tag-tudor-parfitt","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16456"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16460,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16456\/revisions\/16460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}