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NOLACatholic Parenting Podcast
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She may be more than 5,000 miles away from home, but Ukrainian-born Karyna Skyba is happy to be in New Orleans away from her war-torn country’s battles with Russia.
“I am thankful to be here in a safe place,” Karyna Skyba, 15, said where she can study without explosions around her. “I am enjoying Mount Carmel, but sometimes it is hard to study in English.”
Karyna, who started Mount Carmel Academy (MCA) Jan. 4, said the school is bigger than her old school – it has four buildings as compared to only one in Kyiv. In fact, everything is bigger in the United States including the cars. While tough to interpret English constantly for all subjects, she says religion is probably the toughest subject, even though she is from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
“I am interested in learning the Catholic religion,” she said.
Host family helps her
Skyba is staying with host family Lauren and David Kenney, whose daughter Genevieve is also an MCA freshman.
“She’s tired, adjusting to another language and customs all day, but I think she’s doing well,” Lauren Kenney said. “To sit there and translate all day in class is a lot. Some teachers speak very fast.”
Her hosts become homework tutors when necessary.
“My husband just helped her with an assignment,” Kenney said. She and her daughter, who is in P.E. and homeroom with Karyna, also pitch in. “She hangs out with my daughter and her friends and seems to be having fun. Sometimes, it’s hard with teenage girls talking a mile a minute. … She seems to be well adjusted. She’s very smart. In Ukraine, they are very advanced in math and science, so those subjects are easier, and, with math, there’s probably less translation when you think about math and numbers.”
Her brother already here
Karyna isn’t alone in New Orleans. Her brother Mykyta Skyba has been in New Orleans since August 2022, attending Holy Cross School as a senior and staying with the Diodene family whose son Austin is a senior and student body president.
The community has rallied around Mykyta, Wendy Diodene said, especially Mel Grodsky, the owner of Tuxedos to Go, whom she met while Mykyta was fitted for a suit for the Holy Cross ring dance last August. Grodsky was impressed with Mykyta’s intelligence and yearning to bring his sister to safety and offered to help where he could. Grodsky, a former MCA board member whose two daughters graduated, appealed to president Sister Camille Ann Campbell and principal Beth Ann Simno to accept Karyna in the freshman class. Other Catholic schools have also jumped on board.
Grodsky said an Auschwitz visit – where several in his Polish family perished – constantly reminds him of the world’s inhumanity.
“What we’re trying to get as many kids as out of there to get host families and in a school here to keep them alive until this is over,” Grodsky said. “All I want to do is save kids.”
Mykyta recently traveled to Poland to visit his dad and accompany his sister to New Orleans Dec. 31 to stay with the Kenneys.
With a study visa that expires in May 2026, Karyna has time to determine if she will stay in the United States or return home once the war ends. She’s enjoying local Ukrainian dinners and even attended her first Carnival ball – the Krewe of Mad Hatters – with her brother.
“I have a lot of fun here,” Karyna said. “I am very happy to be with my host family. They are so sweet, and I love them. I am very thankful for their help and hospitality.”