Yuliia Pankratova outside Portland Adult Education, where teachers helped launch her journey to a bachelor's degree. Brianna Soukup photo
Resources and supports help strivers thrive
When Yuliia Pankratova dons her cap and gown and takes the stage this month at Southern New Hampshire University, it will mark the end of a long journey -- and the start of another.
Pankratova arrived in Maine from Ukraine as a teenager for a summer job at a shop in Old Orchard Beach where she could fold swimsuits without worries about her limited English. She moved briefly to New York but returned to Maine with assistance from her former employer.
Now, with a strong start at Portland Adult Education, support from MaineCF scholarships, and both associate and bachelor's degrees in hand, she's ready to pursue graduate studies.
The 27-year-old Westbrook resident's success has come with nonstop hard work since 2015: a full-time job at a Portland accounting firm and classes every term. That changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February. One week before her college term ended, she took a 30-day leave to help her family escape.
"It was the worst time of my life, honestly," she said. "It was heartbreaking going to sleep every night — I was preparing myself to wake up the next morning and have my whole family be dead. I didn't know what to do." Her parents, aunt, uncle, and young cousin dodged missiles and fled to bomb shelters and then a suburb of Kyiv, narrowly escaping an attack on a nearby building.
But Pankratova made a plan. Communicating by cell phone with friends in the military who sent her maps and recommended towns to avoid, she directed her family safely out of Ukraine on a dangerous days-long trip across eastern Europe to safety in the Czech Republic. She traveled there to help them get settled and caught up on classes when she returned. Her grandmother remains in Ukraine's Luhansk region.
Anja Hanson, an academic advisor at Portland Adult Education (PAE), isn't surprised by her former student's determination and success. When Pankratova came to PAE she was well educated, Hanson said, but unfamiliar with our educational system and needed to polish her English.
That's common with adult education students Hanson sees now from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. PAE is the largest program in Maine that serves refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers; last year, 1,596 students from 72 countries attended academic and workforce classes through the program.
"There are some remarkable strivers who get a foundation here and are able, like Yuliia, to just keep going, even while working full time, while navigating war and other crises at home," Hanson said. "We have some highly educated folks here. Some will need only a few classes and orientation — opportunities like Yuliia had to settle in and get the lay of the land and understand the application process."
But the hurdles can be huge: Many students juggle care for their small children as they pursue classes and rely on limited school-supplied bus passes for transportation. Students with advanced degrees from other countries can become very frustrated, Hanson added.
"We want to think that strivers can just jump right into community college and go for it. Or we think people who don't finish high school can just pass a test and move along. It's so much more complicated than that," she said. "English is huge, and I think as a society we never want to admit how long it takes — particularly for adults — to learn."
Success stories like Yuliia Pankratova's buoy educators like Hanson, and the numbers are growing. Last year, 31 PAE students graduated from Southern Maine Community College. Many pursue further education at other Maine colleges.
MaineCF's Adult Learner Scholarship, launched in 2019, is one of just a few scholarships available for asylum seekers, who are not eligible for federal or state financial aid. The program has supported at least 45 asylum seekers; a previous scholarship program assisted 42 asylum seekers between 2015 and 2018.
Last June, MaineCF awarded the Finance Authority of Maine $20,000 to develop a grant program to help with costs of translating credentials from a foreign country. The translations, which average $800 each, allow new residents with degrees to complete their U.S. credentials more quickly or even directly enter the workforce.
Cherie Galyean, MaineCF's director of strategic learning, says the Adult Learner Scholarship can support about half the asylum seekers who apply. Many applicants have participated in PAE's College Transitions Program.
"We would love to support more students," Galyean said. "There is no question that they are having a huge impact, especially on the health care workforce."
A third of MaineCF's adult scholarship recipients study nursing, and others pursue pharmaceutical, dental hygiene, radiology, and medical assisting courses. Business and cybersecurity studies rank second and third behind health care.
Pankratova, her sights now set on a master's degree, said she feels blessed to have her undergraduate studies covered by MaineCF scholarships as she becomes the first person in her family to earn a college degree.
"Knowing that I got so lucky to get this opportunity, I just can't fail," she said.
