Olga Pashkevich

“Dare to dream the most great and interesting dreams, then strive to accomplish them,” Volha “Olga” Pashkevich told her classmates during her valedictory address at Pennsylvania’s Manor College commencement in May 2010. The Belarus native spoke not only from the heart, but from experience. She’s living her dream of being an honors graduate from the prestigious Philadelphia college, and of being a pre-medicine scholarship student at nearby Drexel University. But upon her arrival in the US with her family in 2006, her dreams were more like a nightmare. The Pashkevich family was visiting America, but denied the opportunity to return home. Olga, her parents and her sister were stuck in a new land without possessions and with a language barrier to overcome. A few months later, more bad news hit the family when Olga’s mom was diagnosed with cancer. The family stuck together and her mother’s cancer went into remission. Now Olga is gearing up for the next stage in her life.