John Bapst wants 4 Ukrainian students to stay in Bangor another year.
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BANGOR, Maine — Maria, or “Masha,” Gidulianova vividly remembers the day before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
After school let out on Feb. 23, 2022, she and a friend strolled down the streets of their beloved city of Odesa, taking Gidulianova’s dog for a walk. Vehicles packed with Ukrainian soldiers drove past, and the girls smiled and waved to them.
“But they did not respond. There was such sadness in their faces,” she recalled Friday. “That is the moment when I understood there will be a war. I didn’t know when, but I knew it was coming.”

David Armistead, the head of school, learned about the Ukrainian students during a webinar sponsored by the Maine International Trade Center and the U.S. Department of Commerce in April of last year. Having watched the news about the country’s schools and other infrastructure crumble to pieces, he volunteered to accept up to four students on full scholarship, meaning their education, food and living expenses would be covered.
For these Ukrainian teenagers, the experience has meant getting to learn in a safe space far from the threat of a missile obliterating their school. The school has 58 international students, but these four are John Bapst’s first ever from Ukraine.
Eight months into their stay in Bangor, the students have asked to study here for another year, which would mean Romashchin and Smetana could graduate in Maine. John Bapst’s administrators and teachers also hope to keep the students, but educating children on full scholarship is rare for the independent high school, so funding is the biggest barrier, he said.
“When we volunteered to take the kids, we didn’t know how long the war would last,” he said. “We were optimistic that it would be quick, but these are extraordinary circumstances. Everyone at school wants these kids to stay with us. We love them. We want them to be safe.”
Armistead and the students’ parents have been communicating about how to extend their schooling in Bangor. It costs about $16,000 to educate a typical student at the school, not including room and board, he said. Tuition for international students, including meals and accommodations in student residences, is $51,750 each.
The families contributed a small fraction of the tuition for this year, Armistead said, but the war has affected the income of most Ukrainians. Some banking services and sites have shut down, and Russian forces have targeted the country’s energy grid, interrupting access to power for millions.
Smetana, 17, isn’t sure what route he’s most interested in. “There are a lot of fields. I like everything, and it’s a good thing,” he said.
Someday, when it’s safe, they imagine themselves working and building lives in Ukraine.
Romashchin — whose family fled the war in Donetsk in 2014 when he was 8 years old and settled in Kyiv — showed up to the homecoming football game wrapped in a flag representing Kazakhstan as a way to support his friend on the team. At a hockey playoff last weekend, Armistead picked him out of the student section as the loudest supporter.
“Denys’ voice was the one that I heard the most — all in Ukrainian,” he said, laughing. “He’s like a superfan.”
Romashchin has since joined the football team and realized his passion for the sport and the camaraderie among teammates. Gidulianova tried cheerleading and liked that it was different from the ballet, modern and traditional Ukrainian dancing she did back home. Now she’s involved with the newspaper club.
About a month ago, the group prepared borscht, a Ukrainian soup distinctive for its bright red color from beets, and varenyky, which are half-moon shaped dumplings containing various fillings. They fed about 30 people, including students and faculty, and said it was comforting to share a piece of their culture with classmates.
Some peers were visibly moved after Gidulianova and Shvytchenko gave a presentation to the student body about the massive destruction in their country, explaining the toll war has taken on civilians and how missiles have slammed into hospitals, schools and people’s homes.
The students work hard to keep up their grades and become more comfortable here, but some of them still don’t sleep soundly. Romashchin still receives air raid notifications on his phone, which wake him at night, but he feels obligated to check on his loved ones.
Shvytchenko, whose family also is in Kyiv, acknowledged that he feels depressed about the war and the disruption it has caused in the lives and jobs of his parents. Gidulianova and Smetana’s family members are in Spain and Austria now, but she thinks about her grandparents near the shore of the Black Sea, where mines regularly explode and rock the lives of those nearby.
In the meantime, they are grateful “to be here, to feel safe, to live a regular life as all people should,” Shvytchenko said.