Yuliana Romanyshyn, a staff writer for the Kyiv Post, joined the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship program in 2017 with the help of crowdfunding initiated by her editor in Ukraine, Brian Bonner. The campaign raised $7,560 to cover part of the expenses of bringing Romanyshyn to the United States for six months.
Nearly 100 people contributed to the campaign so that the 25-year old journalist from Tempoli could study at the Missouri School of Journalism and work in American newsrooms. Romanyshyn will be on the staff of the Columbia Missourian for the first half of the fellowship program and at the Chicago Tribune for the second half.
Yuliana Romanyshyn
Romanyshyn will expand her knowledge of reporting and writing and specialized skills such as data journalism.
“With the set of skills in data journalism I’ll gain in the United States, I will be able to do comprehensive data stories and apply Western practices to the development of journalism in Ukraine,” she said. “The Alfred Friendly Press Partners program, like no other, can help me reach the next level of knowledge, skills and the global perspective required to reach my career ambitions.”
Romanyshyn said she also wants to teach Americans about Ukraine. “I’ll contribute with my experience of the current situation in Ukraine and post-Soviet countries to global understanding of my home country at the world arena.”
This is the fourth year that Kyiv Post journalists have taken part in the Alfred Friendly program. The previous three were Olena Goncharova and Oksana Grytsenko, who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Anastasia Forina, who worked at the Chicago Tribune.
