Scholar Spotlight
A prolific writer of poetry and song, Nate is a dynamic speaker and isn't shy about performing in front of an audience.
Scholars Around the World
Two JKCF Scholars organize a 15-day study tour to Bolivia to explore the country’s political economy, peoples and rural development
Katsiaryna Pleshankova
“Now I understand that medicine is not only a study of biological processes in the human body, but a life commitment to the service of patients.”
- Program: 2008 Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Recipient
- Resides: Penfield, NY
- Hometown: Gomel, Belarus
- Age: 25
- Community College: Monroe Community College
- Four-year College or University: University of Rochester
- Academic/Career Pursuits: Medical Practitioner, Sciences, Biology, Clinical Psychology
- Other Interests: Foreign Languages / International Study, Model UN, Sciences, Volunteer Work
Biography
PROFILE: Katsiaryna Pleshankova was a “Chernobyl child,” three years old at the time of the disaster and living in Gomel, one of the most radioactively polluted cities in Belarus. As part of a relief program for children, she shared three unforgettable summers with a family in Italy and fell in love with traveling forever. Back in Belarus, Katsiaryna studied French for nine years, “hoping that one day I would be able to practice it in Paris.”
Arriving in the US at age 20, without knowing English and with three hundred dollars in her pocket, Katsiaryna spent half an hour trying to explain at a bus station that she wanted to go “somewhere by the ocean.” The cashier sold her a ticket to Ohio. After 17 hours on the bus, she found herself in downtown Cincinnati without a job or a place to stay – and no ocean in sight. Thanks to a kind man from Belarus who offered to help, she began working as a hotel housekeeper the very next day. And thanks to her rigorous and passionate dedication to learning and medicine, she is now on her way to becoming a physician.
INSPIRATION: Katsiaryna’s childhood dream was to become a doctor. Beyond the mystery of the human body and the fascinating books she found in the libraries of relatives who were doctors, she came to understand the social responsibility of changing lives through medicine.
ASPIRATION: Katsiaryna plans to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, “where doctors help human beings in the very beginning of their lives.”
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Katsiaryna has tutored refugee children from Somalia and Russia in English and math. She also brought the Human Race Machine to her community college campus, a highly interactive computer that challenges a person’s perception of race, age, and outward features.
ACCOLADES: Selected for the All-USA Academic Team and on the International Dean’s List for three terms, Katsiaryna was chosen as a rapporteur to the General Assembly Plenary at the Model United Nations conference last year.
INTERESTING FACT: Katsiaryna owns pet rats.
Other Scholars Like Katsiaryna
Heather Lewis
Undergraduate Transfer Scholar
Stanford University
Breiseus Ashford
Undergraduate Transfer Scholar
Pepperdine University
Yuriy Bronshteyn
Graduate Scholar
Vanderbilt University
Joseph Jewell
Graduate Scholar
California Institute of Technology