Ukrainian students take National Subject Test in Rancho Cordova, with hopes to return home

Ukrainian refugees from around the country gathered at the Ukrainian-American House headquarters in Rancho Cordova to take the National Multi- Subject Test, or the NMT, on Tuesday.

The NMT is similar to other college entrance exams, like the SAT or the ACT, but for Ukrainian universities.

Yahya Saffuri a 17-year-old Ukrainian-Palestinian student, fled from Ukraine to Dallas, Texas at 15. While Saffuri didn’t personally want to take the NMT, he was encouraged by his mom to finish his Ukrainian education given all the time and money spent on it already.

Saffuri would balance his American high school education with his now-online Ukrainian high school education.

“I spent all my weekends just doing Ukrainian school, doing all the homework, waking up at 7 o’clock in the morning and doing all that,” he said.

After sacrificing his weekends, Saffuri recently obtained his diploma from his Ukrainian high school as well as his American high school diploma.

The test was hosted by the nonprofit Ukrainian American House, which is dedicated to fostering humanitarian, educational, and economic relations between Ukraine and the United States, according to its website.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science worked closely with U.S.-based organizations to establish temporary examination centers in the country.

While the NMT is offered in European countries for Ukrainian students to take, since 2022, some U.S. cities have been designated temporary examination centers. In addition to Sacramento, this year, the NMT was also available in Chicago and Texas.

Two test sessions were offered, both in the first week of June. A total of 38 students took the NMT in Sacramento.

Similar to most of the students taking the NMT, Pavla Kobzar, another student, balanced attending her Ukrainian high school with her American high school.

Kobzar, 17, became a refugee after fleeing her home city of Odesa. Her journey to Sacramento from Ukraine included pit stops in Poland and Chicago.

While she said she is grateful to be in Sacramento so she can more easily pursue her dreams of becoming an actress or synchronized swimmer, she said it’s been difficult to leave her home and loved ones.

Although the main priority of the event was to take the test, Kobzar said “it was really nice to see my people.”

That sense of community in an unstable time is what Dmytro Kushneruk, the consul general of Ukraine to San Francisco, hoped to achieve.

The consulate general was a partner to bring the NMT to Sacramento.

“It’s very important that the Ukrainian government is just creating conditions for them to keep the connection with their country so that people are not refugees forever,” he said.

While some students see their future involving a return back to Ukraine, others see their lives heading down a different path.

Volodymyr Kuchera, 17, fled the city of Ivano-Frankivsk in 2023, when the Russian invasion left his mother’s dental practice without power.

“My mom, on her last savings, decided that we needed to move to America, and that’s what we did,” Kuchera said.

While taking the NMT does allow him to pursue higher education in Ukraine if he chooses to return, Kuchera said his future is uncertain. He and his family were granted temporary-protected status, but in their case, it will only last until 2026.

After 2026, Kuchera is unsure where he’ll be. “I’ll find a way,” he said.

Kushneruk understands that many of the students may wish to continue their education in the United States, but for him, taking the test provides “the option to always come back home when the war is over.”

He said they can “bring the experience, the knowledge, the new approaches … and use them for rebuilding our country because that’s the most important thing for Ukrainians.”

The students are not alone in their mixed feelings about returning home, the parents have them as well.

Saffuri said for his mother, the thought of returning is a more complicated issue.

“She wants to and she doesn’t at the same time,” he said. “She doesn’t feel safe there, but it’s her home.”

Unlike her, Saffuri has no desire to return to Ukraine. Given his unique Palestinian and Ukrainian heritage, he said it feels like his family is “constantly immigrating somewhere.”

While Kushneruk said the war ending is up to the Russian military, there is a general hope that peace will come soon and the journey of rebuilding Ukraine can begin.