Bard College Announces New Tuition-Free Language and Thinking Program in Kyiv with Support from Nova Ukraine

KYIV, UKRAINE—Bard College is launching Language and Thinking (L&T) Kyiv, a tuition-free three-week program for Ukrainian high school students, July 27–August 15, 2026. L&T is Bard’s signature program that involves deep engagement with texts and an exploration of the iterative process between writing and thought. It is a core part of the curriculum at Bard College campuses across the United States and the globe and has been at the heart of Bard’s promotion of liberal arts and sciences education. Extending this work to Kyiv, L&T Kyiv focuses on expanding equitable access to rigorous education, strengthening pathways into Ukrainian higher education, and introducing innovative teaching methodologies into Ukrainian schools.
 
The summer program is funded by Nova Ukraine. L&T Kyiv is run in collaboration with Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), which is hosting the program, and Ukrainian Leadership Academy (ULA), which is providing housing for those students who join L&T Kyiv from areas across Ukraine, many of whom have come to the program from frontline regions. Additional support comes from Ukraine Global Scholars.

The inaugural cohort of 35 students represents communities from Kyiv, as well as frontline and rural regions, including Sofiivska Borschahivka, Kramatorsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Irpin, Borodianka, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Radyvyliv, Uzhhorod, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Kropyvnytskyi, Berdychiv, and more.

“We believe that the Language and Thinking program in Kyiv will provide an outstanding educational opportunity for young, talented Ukrainian students who will benefit from the opportunity to delve into time-honored texts to help them find their voices at this critical moment in their lives. We are extremely thankful to the Kyiv School of Economics for hosting us and proud that a Bard student, Yana Lahoda, has taken the lead in organizing this transformative educational experience in her homeland, following a great tradition of student civic leaders at Bard,” said Bard Acting President Jonathan Becker, who will also deliver the Commencement Address for the Kyiv School of Economics.

L&T Kyiv was founded by Bard undergraduate Yana Lahoda ’27, through the Trustee Leader Scholar program, which supports students who design and run civic engagement projects based on their own compelling interests. Before attending Bard, Lahoda received support to attend high school in the US from Ukraine Global Scholars, a nonprofit that helps Ukrainian students from modest backgrounds apply to top boarding schools and universities for full scholarships with a commitment to return to Ukraine to contribute knowledge gained during their studies. Since 2024, Lahoda co-led the English Program and Juniors program at UGS and focused on international project coordination with the International Cooperation Team for Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense.

Lahoda notes that, “As a student myself, I will always be grateful for my time on the Annandale campus, and for many hours learning from my advisors who made this program possible and challenged me in the best way. I remain amazed at the commitment of my college to support its students to such a strong extent and will continue to remember moments of difficulties and unanswered questions as the greatest drivers of curiosity.”

The L&T Kyiv seminars, taught by the Bard’s Institute for Writing and Thinking faculty members Philip Pardi and Liliana Tymchenko, are built around an integral anthology titled “Justice” that brings together readings by Lesia Ukrainka, Václav Havel, Martin Luther King Jr., and others to facilitate discussion on freedom, responsibility, and dignity.

Over the past several decades, Bard College has adapted its distinctive approach to teaching and learning through Bard Early Colleges embedded in public high schools, microcolleges, the Bard Prison Initiative, and partnerships with educational institutions around the world. In 2022, Bard launched a sanctuary program for students from Ukraine who had lost access to higher education due to displacement or whose institutions had been forced to close. Currently, 29 Ukrainian sanctuary students attend Bard.
 
For Bard College and its Ukrainian partners, this program represents a long‑term commitment to work side by side with Ukrainian educators to narrow rural and urban gaps in opportunities, expand access to liberal arts and sciences learning, and cultivate inquiry, reflection, and civic engagement. The program is focused on three key goals: increasing access for students from rural and frontline regions as well as students with subsistence‑level income; strengthening Ukrainian educational frameworks; and facilitating global opportunities for Ukrainian students with an orientation to return home.

Every year, Bard’s distinctive Language and Thinking Program is taught in over 20 Bard sites around the world. By participating in Language and Thinking Kyiv, young people in Ukraine join Bard students around the world in intellectual engagement with questions rooted in our shared humanity, as well as challenges that bring together the academic and the civic. When the inaugural session concludes in August, Bard’s goal is that L&T Kyiv students will leave with robust writing portfolios, experience in seminar-based learning, stronger analytical reading and writing skills, increased confidence participating in scholarly discussion, and an understanding of how writing can serve as a tool for inquiry across disciplines. These outcomes will help inform future adaptations of L&T in Ukraine and contribute to Bard’s ongoing efforts to broaden access to transformative liberal arts and sciences education around the world.

To learn more about L&T Kyiv, please visit bardltkyiv.org.
 

This event was last updated on 07-23-2026

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