Journey to an education: Kazakhstan to Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – She and her family traveled from Kazakhstan to Lynn in 2000 for a new home and new opportunities. Now, nearly a decade after earning an associate’s degree, Katya Kovbasa has returned to her college home for a new opportunity.”It’s a pretty small and a tight-knit community and you kind of feel like you’re at home,” Kovbasa, 31, said Monday. “It’s a great opportunity, I think ? It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 years or 20 years later, it still feel likes home.”Kovbasa grew up in Almaty, Kazakhstan and said her family always pushed her to learn English. There were English picture books at age 6, then pen pals in Australia, Egypt and Argentina, and she began studying English as her third language in grade 7.As the Soviet Union crumbled, Kovbasa said intense nationalism prompted members of the Russian, Jewish and German minority populations to flee the region, crippling the economy and culture.”To live and thrive, you had to move somewhere else,” Kovbasa said.The family won a green card to the United States and moved to Lynn in February 2000 when Kovbasa was 15.She attended Lynn English High School, where she said most of the material that was taught in her math and physics classes she had learned while in the sixth or seventh grade at her school in Kazakhstan. But English had a new science wing with something unfamiliar to her: well-equipped chemistry labs.”A lot of people say they come to the United States and go to the stores and see how many things there are to buy and they find it shocking,” Kovbasa said. “For me the shockwave was going to school and having these new interesting things going on.”Kovbasa attended Marian Court College and graduated with an associate in science degree in 2004. She then worked in insurance for seven years and as a real-estate agent for three years. When Marian Court announced it was offering a bachelor’s degree program, Kovbasa decided to return to school, commuting from Burlington.She is currently studying for a bachelor’s degree with a major in business and a minor in environmental sustainability management with plans to graduate in 2016. Kovbasa said she then plans to get a graduate degree in business.Last weekend, she attended a workshop at Harvard Medical School for high school, college and community college students from underrepresented populations in medicine and science. She is Marian Court’s third student to attend the annual conference, said Susan Langlois, dean of academic affairs and student services.Having students accepted to the Harvard workshop is a matter of pride at Marian Court. In past years, the college president, Dr. Denise A. Hammon, has driven students to and from Harvard to ensure they have the opportunity to participate.Although the majority of her fellow students are younger, Kovbasa said she never has a problem finding topics for conversation. In fact, Langlois said that Kovbasa has become “an outstanding role model” for Marian Court students.”We’re very proud of Katya and love having her back,” Langlois said. “She’s a gift.”