Help Sasha Stay at SUNY Purchase

This is Laura Cahill. I started Young Playwrights Ukraine over three years ago and I’ve worked with Sasha since she wrote her first play “How Do You Feel Fear?” in 2022. Sasha is fiercely talented and I care deeply about her future.

When Sasha and I met, a little over two months after the war began, she was a refugee in Germany. Now, she’s going into her second year at SUNY Purchase where she studies film. Her entire first year was paid for by our community and a small scholarship from SUNY Purchase, where she’s thriving.

I received an email from the school about Sasha - “Did she tell you about her encounters with our senior citizens in the senior living community? She deserves every good thing that comes her way.”

Sasha is amazing, brave, kind, and hard working.

Sasha is currently raising $17,000 to cover tuition for the fall semester of her sophomore year. Her family's entire life have been so disrupted by war, they can't pay for their daughter to get the education they want for them.

Please take a minute to watch the beautiful video Sasha made about her time at Purchase. It’s a story of hope, resilience, and how art matters right now. It’s really worth watching!

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Oleksandra (Sasha) Sereda.

I'm a Ukrainian student at SUNY Purchase, studying film. I'm currently raising $17,000 to cover tuition and living costs for the rising sophomore fall semester.

I grew up in Kyiv. When the full-scale invasion began, I found myself not only displaced physically, but emotionally too. It was during that time I started turning to film and playwriting — as a way to process what was happening, to ask questions I couldn't put into words.

Coming to Purchase was never just about “studying film.” It was about finding a place where stories matter.

Where I could learn the craft of telling human stories — the ones I carry, the ones I have the voice and the will to share.

From my first week at college, I was filming. I never held a real camera before — now I work at the Film Equipment Store, learning hands-on every week. I'm camera operating films for my classmates' projects.

Purchase is the place I always dreamed of being. It's a school where the spirit of art lives in every room, every studio, every hallway. But the greatest gift here for me is the people — my classmates. Each of them brings something so unique, and through them, I grow. We learn from each other, challenge each other, and build something together.

During my freshman year, I made my first short film, Bazhannya (A Wish). It is about a girl in Kyiv spending her birthday alone — with war quietly breathing behind every wall.

This story means so much to me.

I believe I’m one of the voices of Ukrainian youth who’ve faced war, and I carry a responsibility to speak for us. Bazhannya is one of those stories.

It asks: Can you celebrate a birthday during war?

And how, when your family isn’t there?

This film is why I tell stories. To hold on to the small, human moments that matter most.

I recorded a short video where I talk about making my first film at Purchase.

It was one of the hardest, most exciting things I’ve ever done.