Four TNMU Students Received Personal Hryhorii and Yevdokia Shumka Scholarships
On May 25, 2021, during the meeting of the Academic Council of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, personal Hryhorii and Yevdokia Shumka scholarships were awarded. This year, the family has also allocated funds for the project. A few months ago, a competition was announced for scholarships among Ukrainian full-time students of Nursing Institute. Anyone could apply. During the selection, financial state, academic success and social activity were taken into account.
Thus, Alina Marushchak (group MBV 141, Nursing), Anna Subotenko (group MBV 141, Nursing), Dmytro Bubenchyk (group PBv 131, Paramedic), Anastasia Prokhorenko (group PBv 132, Paramedic) were selected for the scholarship.
Professor Mykhaylo Korda, the rector of TNMU, reminded that there were two projects at the university to provide personal scholarships: the Shumka family and the Kinashchuk family. As for the first scholarship, the idea of providing material incentives for young people was by Dale Shumka, whose parents came from Ternopil region. He decided to contribute to the future of Ukraine by supporting talented youth. According to Mykhaylo Mykhailovych, another scholarship was initiated by TNMU graduates Liudmyla and Mykola Kinashchuk. Via the endowment, they decided to support the best students of Ternopil Medical University. The interest from the deposit funds goes for the Kinashchuk scholarship to the fourth-year student, who has the highest academic grades, is active in volunteering, public, charity, creative activities at the university.
Professor Svitlana Yastremska, the director of the Academic and Research Institute of Nursing, added that in addition to monetary incentives each scholarship holder received a scholarship certificate and a historical note about Hryhorii and Yevdokia Shumka. All documentation was developed and printed by the family in Canada and sent to our university.
Awarding of these scholarships was initiated by Chrystyna Shumka, the instructor-methodologist of the Department of Nursing at McEwan University, in July 2017 during her visit to TNMU as part of the official delegation of the University of Edmonton. Once, Dale Shumka’s family cooperated with the University of Calgary as volunteer project. They financially supported the faculty where the nurses studied. Then the family had the idea to cooperate in the same way with Ternopil National Medical University.
The benefactors were able to see the effectiveness of the scholarship program during a visit to TNMU on May 24, 2019. Then Andrea Shumka, Dale Shumka, Marnie Shumka visited the university. They had the opportunity to talk with Professor Mykhaylo Korda, the Rector of TNMU, to study the affairs of the Institute of Nursing.
Dale Shumka shared his feelings about his visit to Ternopil and TNMU: “We came here because our daughter-in-law, who is a lecturer at McEwen University in Edmonton, was here several times. She was very impressed of your university and city. Just as she came back to Canada, I was investigating my father’s roots. His family emigrated from Ternopil region in 1908. A very large number of emigrants were then from Ukraine and Poland. Canada is a big country and needed people and labor. Unfortunately, I could not find anything in the records and metrics about my relatives. My maternal grandparents emigrated even earlier, in 1898. I also failed in researching my mother’s pedigree. I was pleased to hear Christina’s positive feelings about Ternopil and I dreamed of visiting the homeland of my ancestors.”
The administration and students of TNMU are grateful to Dale Shumka’s family for the support of student youth from among the future nurses and paramedics. We sincerely believe that these investments will promote development of young Ukrainian professionals, who in the future will save many lives performing their professional duties, and will provide high quality care to the sick.
Yanina Chaikivska, TNMU Press Secretary
Photos by the author