{"id":18798,"date":"2022-08-01T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T08:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=18798"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:33:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:33:55","slug":"connecting-ukrainians-to-u-s-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2022\/08\/connecting-ukrainians-to-u-s-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting Ukrainians to US Employers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Emma Salomon \u201924<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With help from MacStartups, two Macalester students hope to connect Ukrainians displaced by the war in their region with employers in the United States. Anatoliy Cherednichenko \u201923 and Gurgen (Gugo) Babayan \u201924 started this work in the spring semester with the group <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/themacweekly.com\/80828\/features\/macalester-community-mobilizes-for-ukraine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mac4Ukraine campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which raised more than $12,000 for Ukrainian aid. Now, they are continuing their efforts by creating a website.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOur website aims to increase the chances of Ukrainians being hired by businesses in the US that will support their specific needs,\u201d Cherednichenko says.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>MacStartups support<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anatoliy: This summer, I wanted to create something on my own. [The eight-week intensive program for student entrepreneurs] MacStartups gives me not just the resources from a stipend and seed money, but also the expertise from industry experts to help improve our product. Our weekly cohort meetings, as well as the advice of our mentor, have been invaluable.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gugo: The program has facilitated channels of communication and learning. Even though the speakers and mentors are incredibly successful, they have gone out of their way to help us. Without them, our product wouldn\u2019t be nearly as clear and feasible.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>Personal connections<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anatoliy: I grew up in Crimea and personally know many people who have lost their jobs, parents, and houses since this war began. Being so far away from my friends and family makes me feel disconnected but also highly motivated to use my outside privilege to help others.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I knew I wanted to develop more sustainable support for Ukrainians and I realized MacStartups gives me the time, expertise, and funding to create something that will have a lasting impact.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gugo: As a person who has experienced war and conflict, I know the frustration of being an ocean away and feeling helpless. I joined Anatoliy because I realized with this we can actually make a difference. I\u2019m also excited to expand the platform to other groups of refugees who are experiencing financial insecurity.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b>Making alumni connections<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anatoliy: We really appreciate our mentor Ali Alizadeh \u201985. Like us, he was an international student at Mac who has become incredibly successful. His business expertise is invaluable.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He\u2019s also a great person to talk to and often invites us to his house for meals. Over one lunch, he told us we had progressed and learned a lot. Getting that validation from someone so successful really has stuck and motivated us.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/MacStartupsJuly2022v2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18802\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/MacStartupsJuly2022v2-1024x576.jpg 1024w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/MacStartupsJuly2022v2-300x169.jpg 300w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/MacStartupsJuly2022v2-768x432.jpg 768w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/MacStartupsJuly2022v2-1536x864.jpg 1536w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2022\/07\/MacStartupsJuly2022v2-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two students aim to connect refugees to work in the United States.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18798"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30855,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18798\/revisions\/30855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}