Friday, May 30, 2025

Visit of Dr. Kyrychenko from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) to UMass Amherst

This past week, we were delighted to have Dr. Kostyantyn Kyrychenko, the Vice Rector for International Cooperation at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), come to UMass Amherst. Those of you who have been reading my blog are aware of the global partnership between these two universities established shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. 

It was a pleasure to have Dr. Kyrychenko join a group of us for lunch. At the delicious lunch at The Commonwealth Restaurant sponsored by the UMass Amherst Office of Global Affairs (OGA) even the one and only Associate Vice Chancellor Ken Toong stopped by! When I told our distinguished visitor from Ukraine that UMass Amherst had been voted as having the best college food 7 years in a row - he corrected me (thank you) - UMass Amherst has received this honor 8 times! Special thanks to Kimberly Stender and Claire Novotny of the Office of Global Affairs for the lovely time and to my great Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst colleagues, Professors Bogdan Prokopovych πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ and Ina Ganguli, who also has an appointment in our Economics Department and who graciously shared the photo with Ken Toong in the collage below. It was extra special to also have exchange students from KSE join us.


I was touched by a lovely gift set that Dr. Kyrychenko presented me from Sumy, which is the city in eastern Ukraine that he is from and also where one of our exchange students is from. Kimberly Stender presented him with some gifts from the Office of Global Affairs and he gave her some KSE branded gifts. The conversations were wonderful and I am sure that they will continue. The exchange student program has brought 7 different students from KSE to UMass Amherst in the past two years and they have thrived on our beautiful campus. The students are fabulous ambassadors for Ukraine and their courage and work ethic inspire me.

We thank Dr. Kyrychenko for visiting us. The journey from Ukraine is quite long and I know that tomorrow he will be back for KSE Open Days!