These teenagers fled the war in Ukraine. Now they’re graduating high school in Philly

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In 2022, Sofiya Ionina was among the estimated 10,000 Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion and landed in Philadelphia. Now she will experience one of the fundamental teenage rites of passage: graduating from high school.

On Friday, 17-year-old Ionina, of Lutsk, will walk with about 150 other seniors from Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School during a graduation ceremony at the Kimmel Center. She will be one of seven Ukrainian refugees wearing gowns and mortarboards.

Three years ago, Ionina did not imagine that a war would force her into an American high school. When she arrived in Philadelphia in August 2022, she was scared and confused. Now she loves it.

“To be honest, I want to finish school here,” she said. “The school in Ukraine and here are very different. Here I like more. Different lessons and different friendships with teachers. In Ukraine, it’s harder to study.”

Ionina enrolled in the String Theory school and chose to focus her studies on graphic design following her family’s vocation: Her father is a graphic designer and her older brother is a tattoo artist. She will be attending Holy Family University, in part because it’s near her family’s home in Northeast Philadelphia.

Whenever the war ends, Ionina does not see herself moving back to Ukraine.

“I want to go back only for my grandmother, but I’m gonna come back here again,” she said. “This is home now.”

String Theory, a nonprofit education organization, operates three campuses in Philadelphia, representing all grade levels. Susan Thomas, a college counselor and mental health awareness counselor, said the school accepted 88 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war, none of whom spoke English nor had enough possessions to warrant more than a single bag.

“They are so focused. They’re so well behaved. They’re serious students,” Thomas said. “They’re very kind and empathetic, but they spoke no English. They learned it all just by being here.”

The school assisted the refugees and their families to secure housing and transportation and to orient them to their new city. Many students fled Ukraine with very little preparation. Thomas said some kids were told they were going on vacation only to realize they were leaving the country with no plan to return, leaving behind grandparents, friends and pets without as much as a goodbye.

“They did have trauma in their background. Many teenagers have trauma, whether you grew up in Ukraine or the United States,” Thomas said. “We work with mental wellness. We moved forward and got them into a plan step by step.”

Oleksandr Melenchuk, 18, fled Ukraine in 2023 but kept taking remote classes at his old high school in Khmelnytskyi, in western Ukraine.

“A lot of students in my country moved to Poland and other countries, some came to America too,” he said. “Teachers gave us the opportunity to submit work online.”

Melenchuk took classes simultaneously at his remote Ukrainian school and in person at Philadelphia Performing Arts. He has already graduated from the Ukrainian school. Friday at the Kimmel Center will be his second high school graduation.

“I never could possibly imagine that I would be in America and graduating school here,” he said. “It was in my dreams just to come to America, but finishing school here and knowing English and graduating, that’s really fun.”

Mykola Peredruk, 18, came to Philadelphia with his mother in 2022. His older sister was already established in the city as a dental hygienist. His father, a soldier who suffered injuries during the war, remains in Ukraine as a veteran.

He chose to focus his high school studies on 3D illustration.

“It’s very different than from Ukraine. They let me choose the major, which they didn’t allow me in Ukraine,” he said. “I thought maybe design is really good, and maybe I make a game.”

Peredruk designed an adventure video game, but he has not finished it yet. He might keep working on it over the summer.

“It’s like an adventure. I made a big world but there is nothing in it yet,” he said. “I have a character, though.”

3D design is something Peredruk does for fun. In the fall, he plans to enroll at Penn State Abington to become a physician’s assistant. He does not intend to move back to Ukraine.

“To meet my family, say hi, maybe travel a little bit while I can, and go back to America,” he said. “I have a house here. I have a lot of stuff here. I’m good here. So why should I go back?”