Oksana Moroz, a doctoral student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from Ukraine, has been selected for the Emergency Student Fund Award from the Institute of International Education (IIE) Emergency Fund.
With Moroz’s selection for the scholarship, a total of eight IUP international students have been chosen for IIE funds during the pandemic from a pool of national applicants. The competitive scholarship requires nomination from the host institution.
Moroz was selected for the grant by the Institute of International Education to help to address financial pressures due to war in Ukraine.
She is a student in the Composition and Applied Linguistics English doctoral program. In addition to her studies, she is a first-year and developmental writing coordinator and a tutor at the Jones White Writing Center.
In addition to her involvement with a number of state, national, and international teaching, linguistics, TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and international education organizations, including as a member of the University Life Task Force of the International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship, Moroz has been involved with the following IUP groups: Composition and TESOL Graduate Student Association, NextGen Coordination Council, Center for Teaching Excellence, and President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion.
Moroz came to IUP in 2015 on a Fulbright scholarship and decided to stay to pursue her PhD She received the IUP Women’s Leadership Award in 2020, Award for Exemplary Teaching of Literacy and Language in 2021, and Promising Future Interdisciplinary Research in Literacy Award in 2022.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, she has worked to bring awareness about the war and educate others on its impact on humanity. She has given a number of media interviews about the war in Ukraine, including with Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio, and has held informational sessions at Conemaugh Township, United, Marion Center, and Homer-Center high schools. She has also initiated programs to collect donations of monetary funds, clothes, diapers, and military protective gear from IUP and from the community, including the YMCA of Indiana County, Revelry Church, and United Methodist Church.