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Appleton, Wisconsin — The city of Appleton has become a home for Irina Visnevskaia (Vish) from Odessa, Ukraine.
She is taking classes to learn English at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC). Ironically, this is the same school her daughter Anastasia Leitz attended when she came to America 20 years earlier.
Vish has been living with her daughter for over a year after visiting Wisconsin last Christmas.
“Her tickets were canceled soon after the war started, so we rebooked them and postponed them for a few months, but months later she still hadn’t flown to Ukraine,” Lietz said. Told.
It was hard for Vish, especially since her husband and friends are still in Ukraine. Reetz replaces her mother’s feelings with being away from her home country.
“Nobody knew,” said Reetz. “She couldn’t even imagine anyone. She said there was a war atmosphere going on, but on the whole nobody wanted to believe it.
During this time of uncertainty, she has not only taken English classes but has also devoted herself to what she loves most: art. She became a professional artist at the age of 54, and before that was a journalist for national and local newspapers, where she published five books.
“Every picture she paints is a story,” said Reetz. “A story about people about an individual or nation as a whole.”
She loves to paint and is sharing her artwork at the Heart and Soul of Ukraine exhibition in San Diego, California. Some of her art reflects her home country.
“She also wants to talk about another side of Ukraine,” Reetz said. “Everybody knows about the heroic side and the chaotic side of Ukraine, but she wants to talk about a multinational Ukraine and a peaceful Ukraine.”
The exhibition is this spring and she hopes to be home with her loved ones.
Vish is one of hundreds of students taking English learning classes at FVTC. The class has 6 levels. The latest enrollment figures show she had 400 students in October.
Students come from countries such as Ukraine, Cuba, and Afghanistan. ELL classes focus on reading, writing, speaking presentations, and career skills through immersion in English.
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