In high school Rostyslav Semikov won a competition for a student exchange program established by the US Congress [Freedom Support Act Future Leaders Exchange]. He lived and studied in the USA for an entire year. With the dream of becoming a surgeon, in 1999 he entered the Zaporizhzhia Medical University. From his first year of study, Rostyslav took part in university student scientific study groups, presented at national and international medical conferences, participated in biomedical science competitions. In addition, he presided over the University’s Student Research Society until 2002. For four years during medical school Rostyslav regularly volunteered as a surgeon’s assistant. Two or three times a week he stayed 24-hour shifts in the surgical departments at the Zaporizhzhia Center for Extreme and Emergency Medicine or in the Zaporizhzhia Regional Clinical Hospital.
Awards came in bunches for him. “Slavutych – to the Best” award in 2001, Scholarship of the Mayor of Zaporizhzhia in 2002, and the Scholarship of the President of Ukraine in 2002 and 2003. He also experienced victories in the several competitions such as “Student-Scientist of the Year”, “Best Scientific Research”, etc.
Then everything suddenly changed. For some mysterious reason, his Presidential Scholarship was revoked, and he was later dismissed as head of the Student Research Society. In 2005, Rostyslav won a grant for a two-month student internship at the Medical School of Saint Louis University in the USA. But with all the documents and visa in his hands, the administration of our university did not allow him to take advantage of this opportunity.
Rostyslav graduated from the university with honors and was invited to pursue a residency and master’s program in surgery at the Zaporizhzhia Academy of Postgraduate Education of Doctors.
However, the university’s administration denied the appointment and claimed that no such invitation ever existed. The Healthcare Department of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast State Administration granted him a job position in surgery at the Central District Hospital of the Zaporizhzhia Rayon, but a completely different person obtained the position instead. Finally, Rostyslav was denied all opportunities in surgical residency and career for the formal reason of “no positions available”. He was offered to continue training either in a tuberculosis dispensary or in an ambulance [close to the US paramedics job].
– Your career was developing successfully before Yuriy Kolesnik was elected rector of ZSMU (Zaporizhzhia State Medial University). His rival in the race was Aleksander Nikonenko, well-known surgeon and rector of the Institute for the Improvement of Doctors, with whom you successfully maintained cooperative relations. Do you see some linkage between these circumstances and the fact that you heard the word “No” so often?
– I cannot assert that for sure because it is still beyond my understanding why this happened. Maybe, I indeed had the “wrong” academic supervisors. Or because of my religious beliefs that administration expressed negative opinion about (I attend a Baptist church). Or they thought I was a rebel due to all these reasons. When I was denied an American internship, administration said it was too much for a student to travel abroad while professors don’t… When all the doors had closed, I thought of leaving the profession and even leaving the country.
– And how did you extricate yourself from that situation?
– I received support from parents, friends, academic supervisors, who made me realize that there is a higher force who guides us. After all, my achievements were real, I knew many people in the scientific field, and someone knew about me. And so it happened that Mykhaylo Saliuta, rector of the Kyiv Institute of Ecology and Medicine, invited me to work there. Changing jobs was a long and painful process, I remained in a state of uncertainty for almost three months, but eventually moved to Kyiv. I was engaged in international cooperation projects, organization of seminars, and conferences. In addition, in the past year, Oxford University announced a competition for a one-year master’s degree in Global Health Science. Ten people applied for the program for a single scholarship of seventy thousand dollars, and I was selected.
– Was it easy for you to adapt to English realities?
– I wasn’t culture shock for me, I speak English well. The most difficult thing was passing exams in writing. The general environment was very good. We had an international group consisting of 24 individuals from 17 countries. The instructors were very friendly, from calling us by our first names, to having lunch and taking the bus to school together. And of course, the global resources were impressive. The university library had ten million book titles, at least half of which are accessible via the Internet [including digitized scholarly articles dating back to 1900].
– How did you plan your working day, week, month, and what did you believe would be the results?
– Our regular activities included one or two, three-hour long lectures each day. So, I was quite busy from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, sometimes until 4:30 pm each day. Each of the four semesters lasts two months. Between the semesters there was a one-month period. We were assigned to self-development activities during these interim periods. After September of that year, I had passed two semesters [lectures, seminars, master classes, exams]. In April-May I will take field trip to China, and afterwards I will write and submit a research paper. If successful, I will obtain my master’s degree.
– What about your off-work routine? Do you have any side job?
– The organization of everyday life such as food, accommodation and entertainment, is responsibility of college. Every student dwell in a separate room with a bathroom, there is one kitchen for three or four people. Janitorial services are also performed by the facilities, this is why students and undergraduates may fully focus on their studies. As for a side job, though it might be a possibility, I feel comfortable with my scholarship. I wish rather to focus on my studies and personal relationships, not have concerns about money facilitates this. There are many museums and exhibitions in the vicinity, London is a short way off. Nobel laureates, prime ministers, presidents, prominent people often visit Oxford University and speak to students. The Ukrainian community in Oxford is small but very friendly, and our compatriots – professors, singers, athletes, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK is aware of us being there and are supportive.
– What are you going to do once you complete the Master’s degree program?
– I realized that it is difficult for a single-discipline specialist to struggle with a system that stands in the way of his desire to work and show his worth. My desire is to find my place in life and participate in changing that system. So that sixth-year students do not get stressed by a situation where they are discouraged from doing what they want to do and where other people decide what profession to follow. This does not contribute to the respect and popularity of the medical profession. In my opinion, the rating system would be more acceptable when a person’s merits in the learning process influence the achievement of his goal to become a specialist in a specific area.
– But it seems that the Bologna process we are trying to join is also connected with this?
– There are a lot of declarations, but in practice many decisions are made covertly, incomprehensibly and in a non-transparent manner. And the rating system is not only the Bologna process. By the way, Oxford and Cambridge do not pay any real attention to it, as well as globalization. The British support the initiatives of the European Union but stand apart: the Schengen visa is not valid there, the pound sterling is the most popular and respected currency. And the healthcare system in Britain has more resemblances with our systems rather than those in the US or Germany: it is funded by taxpayers and the government. I think we should not shy away from learning from the British, and not forget our own.
Interviewed by
Hanna CHUPRYNA
P.S. Rostyslav Semikov asked through the newspaper to thank his teachers, supervisors, of whom he would always and everywhere speak with respect. These are Natalia Sklyarova, Oleksandr Nikitenko, Oleksandr Gubka, Nelia Yareshko, Mykola Lebedinets, Mykola Voloshin, Viktor Pavlichenko, Viktor Syvolap, Volodymyr Kunets, Oleksandr Doroshenko, Georgiy Stetsenko and Oleksandr Chulkov.
The article was published in the MIG newspaper on April 10, 2008
