News

Davyd Samoilenko arrived in Lincoln in 2021 as a foreign exchange student on a one-year program. From Kremenchuk, Ukraine, Samoilenko was excited for the American high school experience.

In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, he was given the chance to stay in the United States longer. Samoilenko graduated from Lincoln Southwest High School, and thanks to Southeast Community College’s Learn to Dream scholarship he enrolled in classes for his Associate of Applied Science in Computer Information Technology.

“I honestly did not know much about the college before the scholarship,” Samoilenko said. “I picked SCC because it really seemed like the best choice back then. There is really not a lot of barriers to this college, and that’s very helpful.”

The Learn to Dream scholarship provided Samoilenko the opportunity to pursue his education without concern for supporting himself. While at SCC, he joined the student senate right away, and he was also a founding member of the speech club.

"When you go to college, the only thing you really think you'll do is just take classes,” he said. “You don't really think about what goes beyond that. But coming to SCC and experiencing it on my own, it's really helped me to go beyond that."

Thanks to his coursework, Samoilenko got a job while attending SCC, and just celebrated his second anniversary working at Bryan Medical Center as a computer support specialist.

“My work is directly related to what I was studying,” Samoilenko said. “It really helped me find a job. Just being a student here and taking classes not only landed me an interview, but also convinced my employer that I was going to learn and was able to perform my job.”

Now, he’s planning to attend University of Nebraska at Omaha for his bachelor’s degree.

"SCC really exceeded expectations in terms of not just being a place where you take classes, but rather being a place where you feel like you can succeed."

Damon Bennett
Activities Information Director
402-437-2077
dbennett@southeast.edu