
9 minute read
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from her friends just hours before. They heard the bombs, she said. “Then I forgot what sleeping is.”
Since then, Schmitt shifted her mindset from helplessness to productiveness. When she’s not working as a “curl sculptor” at her hair salon in Englewood, Schmitt spends her time supporting her country in any way she can while working out the logistics of her mom’s relocation since she fled Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded — along with four million others.
Born and raised in Ukraine, Schmitt immigrated to the United States about seven years ago, after the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Her husband at the time (now ex-husband) was running from Russia, Schmitt said, and wanted to relocate somewhere else. “He realized there was no future [in Russia],” she explained. So they came to Colorado.
In November 2020, Schmitt opened Tame It Curl Haus, her very own studio space specifically for people with curly hair. Her plans to expand her business, including moving to a bigger space, came to a screeching halt when Russia started bombing Ukraine.
Instead, her priorities shifted to relocating her mom and her mom’s two dogs. Because the dogs didn’t meet the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s entry requirements, moving to Colorado wasn’t an option for Schmitt’s mom.
After fleeing Ukraine and traveling for four days to Vienna, Austria — where she stayed for a short time — Schmitt’s mom made it safely to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where Schmitt will house her and her pets for the foreseeable future. Unlike the United States, Mexico doesn’t require health certificate documentation for dogs.
“I’m hoping it’ll be safer for her,” Schmitt wrote in a text message from Mexico, where she recently traveled to find her mom an apartment and a translator.
Her mom might be out of harm’s way for now, but Schmitt is far from relieved.
“My country is [at] war and it’s definitely not easy,” she said.
Her younger sister is still in Donetsk, Ukraine which has been occupied by Russia for the last eight years. According to Schmitt, her sister is pro-Ukraine, but most of the people in that region support Russia. And because she resides in occupied territory, her passport status complicates her ability to travel freely.
“Basically when you turn 25, I believe, you have to change your passport. And because she is in occupied territory … nobody’s going to exchange her passport from Ukrainian to Ukrainian,” Schmitt said. In other words, her sister, who just turned 25, is forced to have a Russian passport.
To cope with her situation, Schmitt said, her sister spends her time volunteering and collecting donations for Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country through the Russian Humanitarian Corridor, which are safe evacuation routes for civilians fleeing the country or groups providing aid.
But Schmitt worries daily about her sister’s safety. Just recently, reports from Ukraine said Russian forces have started using white phosphorus, “a controversial chemical substance that can cause severe and indiscriminate harm to civilians.”
For Schmitt, the home she left seven years ago will never be the same. She and her husband planned on visiting Ukraine this spring, the best time of the year according to Schmitt, after the pandemic limited travel. “Because I was waiting for my status here in the U.S., so I wasn’t able to leave for quite some time,” she explained. But that changed on February 24.
“It’s just surreal. I don’t think I even realized it completely ... that I don’t have a country to go home to anymore, especially the part where I’m from … Now it’s just this mission to help the ones who are still there,” she said. Focusing on ways she can help takes her mind off of everything she has lost, Schmitt explained.
And after more than a month since initial bombing in Kyiv, Schmitt is worried that people will soon become desensitized to the war, especially once something else starts dominating the news cycle. “I just don’t want it to be just another news [story] people get in the morning,” she said, “‘Oh the crisis in Ukraine’ or whatever.”
Diana Schmitt
This story is from Rocky Mountain PBS, a nonprofit public broadcaster providing community stories across Colorado over the air and online. Used by permission. For more, and to support Rocky Mountain PBS, visit rmpbs.org.
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BY ANN SCHIMKE CHALKBEAT COLORADO
Joyful Rothe worked in a nursing home kitchen for 18 years before taking an entry-level job as an aide at a child care center. Shelby Wilson also wants a career working with young children, but for now handles the paperwork for her husband’s loghauling business.
The two women spend an hour every Monday evening in a second-fl oor classroom at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, cars whizzing by outside as they learn how to talk to children about feelings, plan learning activities, and handle meltdowns. They are among hundreds of students across Colorado taking advantage of a new state program that pays for two introductory early childhood courses — a stepping stone to teaching in the fi eld.
The initiative, funded with $4 million in federal COVID aid, is part of a state effort to mint more early childhood teachers before the state’s universal preschool launch in 2023, and help the industry recover from staff shortages exacerbated by the pandemic. In addition to the free college classes, the state is funding apprenticeships, scholarships, training opportunities, mentoring programs, and translation and other support for people from underrepresented groups seeking early childhood careers.
The need for new preschool and child care teachers in Colorado is formidable. State offi cials estimate that more than 2,000 people — 10% of the workforce — left the fi eld during the last two years. They hope to add back more than 1,000 workers by June.
Melanie Gilbertson, who teaches the Monday night class, believes the free coursework has been instrumental in helping students earn qualifi cations they might not otherwise have been able to afford.

This story is from Chalkbeat Colorado, a nonprofi t news site covering educational change in public schools. Used by permission. For more, and to support Chalkbeat, visit co.chalkbeat. org.
Hallways at Calhan High School on March 15, 2022. Calhan High serves upwards of 400 students from preschool to 12th grade.
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