Hi, I am Sirje Kiin, a freelance journalist and writer with a Ph.D. in comparative literature. I am currently living in the US, Madison, South Dakota. My husband, Jack Walters, Ph.D., was a business professor at Dakota State University last 17 years; he just retired. We have donated some money for education at Dakota State University every year, and several DSU students have gotten small grants. But now, when we are both retired, we have limited opportunities to donate.

We chose to come to Gofundme to raise money for college tuition for a very talented and hard-working student Dakota State University, who gets only good grades. She is Ukrainian student, Oleksandra Rachynska from Kyiv. She is an excellent straight-A-student and has obvious goals in her life. We will let her tell you about herself:

"My name is Alex. I am an international student currently studying at Dakota State University. This fall, I will start my sophomore year and continue pursuing my bachelor's degree. Majoring in biology, I conduct research in the microbiology laboratory at DSU and present results at local and national conferences. My future goal is to receive an MD-PhD degree and become a neurosurgeon and gene therapist to work in the area of genetic diseases. While studying in the USA, I had a dramatic life change when, five months ago, the war came to my homeland, Ukraine. Being thousands of miles away from home, I cannot stop thinking about my family and relatives in Ukraine. I keep in touch with my family daily to ensure they are all safe and doing well. Since the war began, my parents lost their jobs and had to stop financially supporting my education expenses. Even working full-time, I cannot support myself financially and pay tuition bills. My long-term goal of becoming a doctor depends heavily on my ability to further my studies. Financial aid would contribute greatly to my ability to afford an education."

We want to help her to be able to pay her 2022 fall semester tuition, which is for one semester: 8871.64 USD.

The annual total for 2022/2023 would be double that of 17743.28 USD.

The money would be transferred directly from my bank account to the account of Dakota State University to pay for the tuition of Olexandra Rachynska.

We ask your help to let Oleksandra continue her education at Dakota State University.

Please, consider donating to this excellent course!