On February 24th, 2022, the Russian army invaded Ukraine. What followed was the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War with an estimated 7.6 Million Ukrainians fleeing their homeland for the bordering states of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. Ukrainians were without shelter, food, medicine, or the promise that they would ever be able to return home. As this international crisis unfolded, Conway School of Nursing student Evan Ampe was in the spring quarter of his sophomore year. Wanting to help family and friends in need Evan was soon on a flight to Poland with aid for Ukrainian refugees. The below interview is about Evan’s choice to attend Catholic University and why he was compelled to help Ukrainian refugees.
Why did you choose Catholic University? And why did you decide to pursue a career in Nursing?
Evan Ampe: It had to do with the way I was raised by my parents. I always wanted to do something where I get to care for people, help people, and do it on an intimate level. So I was really interested in the medical field. I thought about going to school to be a physician's assistant. But as I looked at it, and I spoke to people who worked in the health professions, I realized that nursing was a really good fit for me with my personality. I really like talking to people. I really like engaging on a more personal level than just diagnosis. I think that nursing is going to be a great opportunity for me to get to do that and to make intimate and meaningful connections with people and help them in all aspects of their lives.
What was it about The Conway School of Nursing that was so appealing?
Evan Ampe: I come from a very Catholic family, always raised in the church, all the sacraments, mass every Sunday, and daily mass very frequently. Those values were instilled in me. My mom definitely gave me a lot of freedom to think for myself. It wasn't force-fed to me. But just have a strong appreciation for the faith.
Looking at what can I afford? Where can I go? Do I want to stay close to home? All the questions that everyone goes through during their junior and senior year of high school. Catholic more or less became a dream school for me. I'm from Northern Michigan, so it's really far away. It was outside of the price range that I could make work. It just seemed unattainable, but it seemed absolutely incredible, to get the experience of being in the city on top of an authentically Catholic education combined with such a good nursing school. You look at the opportunities we have with different hospitals and the faculty members are all wonderful. The technology that we have a lot of smaller schools don't have access to. Then one day in the spring of my senior year, I got home, check the mail, and had a letter from Catholic, and it said I had the Conway full Scholarship. My family and I were beyond excited. And it's proved to be more of a blessing than I ever could have imagined.
Last spring you were able to go to Poland to do some volunteer work. How did that come about and what exactly we're you doing?
Evan Ampe: A few years ago, my family adopted two little boys from Ukraine, both of whom have Down Syndrome. Ukraine was still in the post-Soviet era where people born with disabilities aren't really accepted by society. There are incredible people who are working to change the culture. If you're from a family that doesn't have financial means, especially with the complex medical needs and the social stigma around it, it's difficult for you to keep a child who's born with Down syndrome. My parents, they're absolutely saints, got online, made some phone calls, put together some fundraising, and they got those two little boys. It's been the most amazing thing for my siblings. And I'm incredibly grateful for growing up with those two kids.
My mom made lots of connections over there in Ukraine. Not only personal friends and the families of the little boys but also the people that helped facilitate that adoption. When the war started, it had a personal feel to my family, especially my mother, who was in contact with those people in the first days of the war. She lost some friends that she was keeping in touch with, who were killed there and she just really wanted to do something. So we looked at the different avenues. Such as the Red Cross, and the Knights of Columbus. People were willing to give and wanted to help with this effort.
The greater challenge was getting supplies across whatever border into Ukraine because you can't fly planes into there. My Mom and her friends decided, "hey, let's let's get on a plane with a lot of bags full of, medical supplies, humanitarian relief type stuff, and let's get it out to Poland then get it to the border." They had connections with a van that got them and got them into Ukraine. I was more of a willing participant. My mom told me everything I needed to do. We went out there with 2,000 pounds worth of goods all in oversize suitcase-type bags. We flew out there, I got picked up in a van by some folks I'd never even heard of, who wanted to help out. We were able to go to a Polish Costco and buy as much as we could, get that into vans and cross the border.
You went back a second time a month or two after the first trip?
Evan Ampe: Yeah, I think it would have been about two months after the first time.
Did you see anything different? Did you feel any difference between the first and the second time that you were on the ground so early in the war?
Evan Ampe: I spent my time in Ukraine the second time, but I would, I would say the big difference was the renewed hope. I think that people were much more apprehensive earlier in the war. At the beginning of the war, they thought that there might not be anything they could do. There was undoubtedly a remarkable amount of hope when I was there the first time. But a lot of people had left. The men had sent out their kids and their wives to Poland, or wherever else they could get them so that they would be safe. When I was there a couple of months later, in Ukraine, you could see that it was definitely more of a light discipline everybody had to be aware of. You couldn't get gas, but people were living in the cities, they had their shops open. There really seemed to be an attitude of just that they were going to defeat Russia.
What should use the Catholic students know about what it was like in Poland and Ukraine and do you have any lessons you'd like to tell people about your time over there?
Evan Ampe: I think the biggest lesson that I learned is just how insignificant all of the sufferings I face in day-to-day life are. My friends and I are all in our junior year of nursing school and we're complaining 24/7. I don't get enough sleep. I have too much homework, this or that. When you put it in perspective, it's really nothing. We could be homeless and still probably have a significantly safer life than a lot of people do in Ukraine right now. Taking those things, those little, little inconveniences in our lives, and thinking about the big picture. There are always people suffering so much more than we ever do. I think being grateful for the life that we have, but also just as important is kind of using the life we have to be a positive force in the world.
Do you think you'll be returning for a third time?
Evan Ampe: I do. I do. I think we have plans to go back over Thanksgiving break. I'm going to try right now to do some fundraising here and put some supplies together. That trip will just be to Poland and it'll be kind of the same thing as the first trip.
