July 2026
They Chose to Stay! They Chose Ukraine!
Dear Friends,
It is with a great deal of pride that we share this edition of our newsletter dedicated to the 2026 Convocation ceremony at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy that took place on Ukraine’s Constitution Day, June 28.
With 1,275 graduates - 769 bachelor's and 506 master's students and their families and friends, the campus of the university was filled with joy despite the war’s sirens and sleepless nights. Ukrainian resilience and determination were present on campus! They began their studies at the start of the Russian brutal invasion against Ukraine in 2022. They chose to stay.
These graduates reflect commitment, determination, and love of country. They will be documenting history, developing new technologies, shaping the next generation, building businesses, leading institutional reform, physicians will care for a recovering nation, and veterans will be preparing to serve their communities in new ways.
For the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America, this is precisely why investing in Kyiv-Mohyla Academy remains one of the most enduring forms of support for Ukraine. Thank you for your support and donations.
Congratulations to this year’s graduates. In 2022 they chose to stay! They chose to learn at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. And, in doing so, they chose Ukraine.
Marta Farion
President of
Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America
Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Celebrates the Class of 2026
We honor the Class of 2026 not only for their academic achievements, but also for their courage in choosing to remain in Ukraine and pursue their education at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA)—a university that became their home in one of the darkest chapters of the nation's history.
This graduating class is exceptional because its members began their studies in 2022, just as Russia launched its full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Despite air raid sirens, missile attacks, power outages, and the constant uncertainty of war, they chose to stay, persevere, and continue their education.
This year's Convocation celebrated 1,275 graduates—769 bachelor's and 506 master's degree recipients—from the faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Computer Science, Natural Sciences, Economics, Law, Health Sciences, Social Work and Psychology, as well as the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Professional and Continuing Education and the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.
In his address to the graduates, President Serhiy Kvit reflected on the extraordinary circumstances of their education: "Your education took place during one of the most dramatic periods of global change brought about by Russia's war against Ukraine. We are proud of your perseverance and your commitment."
Hennadiy Zubko, Chairman of the University's Supervisory Board and former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, described the students' decision to study in Ukraine during wartime as "a leap of faith." He emphasized that, beyond earning their degrees, the graduates acquired qualities no classroom alone could teach.
"You studied while air raid alarms interrupted lectures, blackouts disrupted daily life, and uncertainty became routine. Yet you never stopped learning. You gained resilience, adaptability, emotional strength, critical thinking, enduring human values, and the ability to perform under extraordinary pressure—qualities that will serve you throughout your lives."
Faculty of Law
This year, the Faculty of Law awarded degrees to 93 bachelor's students in Law, including 15 who graduated with honors, and to 77 master's students, 22 of whom earned honors. Another group completed programs in Public Administration and Governance, preparing for careers in public service at a time when Ukraine needs principled and capable leadership at every level of government.
As the graduation ceremony took place on Ukraine's Constitution Day, Dean of the Faculty of Law Volodymyr Venher emphasized that today's graduates will enter a country where the rule of law is not merely a constitutional principle but a cornerstone of national reconstruction. Courts must earn public trust, democratic institutions must be strengthened, local governments must become more effective, and justice will play a central role in rebuilding society after the war.
For these graduates, a law degree is more than professional preparation. It is a commitment to serving their country with integrity, responsibility, and dedication.
Faculty of Humanities
The Faculty of Humanities includes the following departments: Cultural Studies, English Language, General and Slavi Linguistics, History, Literature, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Ukrainian Language, Archeology.
Ther convocation began with a remembrance. This year, the Academy presented the Mykola Rachok Memorial Scholarship, honoring a graduate, literary scholar, and soldier who lost his life defending Ukraine. The University also awarded the Zahaikevych Family Prize for the best master's thesis in Ukrainian Studies.
In another setting, these might have seemed like customary academic distinctions. Here, they carried deeper meaning. Even in wartime, Ukraine continues to invest in scholarship, language, literature, and historical memory. The Academy understands that rebuilding a nation requires more than restoring buildings and infrastructure. It also requires preserving the ideas, culture, and identity that define the nation itself.
School of Journalism
This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Mohyla School of Journalism, a prominent educational institution in Ukraine, known for its focus on media and communication studies.
For twenty-five years, its graduates have helped shape the country's independent media. Today, many report from the front lines, investigate war crimes, document the human cost of the invasion, and explain Ukraine to audiences around the world.
Dr. Viktoriia Romaniuk, Director of the J-School, who lectures in major international media centers and schools of journalism, congratulated the graduates with words of expectation for their commitment to excellence that will be part of Ukraine’s victory and reconstruction.
Their work has become part of the
country's democratic resilience. The
J-School established the renown Stop-Fake project, the world’s first academic –
systematic study of disinformation, recognized as a pioneer in reporting fake
news in the world.
https://www.facebook.com/MohylaJSchool
See Viktoriia Romaniuk on FB
Faculty of Computer Science and the Department of Physics and Mathematics
These departments are preparing for careers in fields that have acquired new urgency in wartime: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, mathematical modeling, aerospace technologies, and rocket systems physics.
Only a few years ago, many of these students imagined careers in global technology companies. Today, many hope to build technologies that will strengthen Ukraine itself. Their laboratories have become places where innovation meets national necessity.
Dean Andriy Hlibovets leads the department with innovations in technology that affect Ukraine’s security. The graduates of this Department are sought after by government, business, and every sector in society.
KMBS – Kyiv Mohyla Business School
Unlike most graduates crossing the Convocation stage, many kmbs students arrive with years, sometimes decades, of professional experience. They are executives, entrepreneurs, senior public officials, nonprofit leaders, and managers who return to the University because leadership, they believe, requires continuous learning. kmbs is a graduate program.
Among the school's flagship initiatives is the Strategic Leadership Program for Ukraine's Security and Defense Sector, which brings together senior military officers, public officials, and leaders from Ukraine's defense institutions. Neither government, nor defense institutions, nor business can survive without education. Kyiv Mohyla Academy reflects this philosophy.
School of Professional and Continuing Education (KMA_PRO)
This year, the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Professional and Continuing Education (KMA_PRO) celebrated the first graduates of three newly established master's programs: Urban Governance Policy, Educational Leadership, and Business Diplomacy and Government Relations.
These programs were created for professionals who recognize that learning does not end with a diploma. Addressing the graduates, Dean Tetiana Nahorniak offered a challenge rather than a farewell. "Create. Influence. Transform yourself—and the world around you."
Her words captured the spirit of the School and, in many ways, the philosophy of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy itself. Education is not simply preparation for a profession. It is preparation for leadership and service. The program includes lectures by some of Ukraine’s top diplomats and business persons.
The Leadership and Resilience Certificate Program at the Defenders Leadership Center
As the Convocation continued the atmosphere shifted. The graduates who stepped forward next had followed a different path. Some had spent months on the front lines. Others had returned to civilian life carrying visible and invisible reminders of war.
Now they stood in academic robes, receiving certificates as graduates of the Leadership and Resilience Program at the Defenders Leadership Center of Ukraine.
Few moments during the Convocation captured the changing face of Ukraine more vividly. On one side of the stage stood young graduates preparing to begin their careers. On the other side stood veterans beginning entirely new chapters of their lives.
Together, they represented two generations united by a common purpose: serving Ukraine.
The Defenders Leadership Program helps veterans translate military experience into civic leadership, preparing them to become entrepreneurs, educators, public servants, community leaders, and agents of change. The classroom becomes more than a place of instruction. It becomes a place of transition.
President Serhiy Kvit described the program as a space for personal growth, where veterans search for answers to important questions and transform their ideas into meaningful action.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Tetiana Berezhna reminded graduates that education teaches people to dream boldly and to transform those dreams into reality.
Addressing the graduates, Yana Chapailo, Director of the Defenders Leadership Center, and Mariia Savrun, the Center's Director of Development, emphasized that graduation is not the conclusion of the program but its beginning. The goal is not merely to educate individuals. It is to build a community of leaders capable of guiding Ukraine through one of the most consequential periods in its modern history.