ETSU holds graduation ceremony via Zoom for Ukrainian student earning Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies

Pavlo Rybaruk, who lives in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, is seen here wearing the Hutsul serdak, a traditional decorated jacket worn by men in the region. Rybaruk wore the Hutsul serdak for his graduation ceremony, hosted via Zoom by ETSU. (Photo courtesy of Pavlo Rybaruk.)

This story was originally published and broadcast on Jan. 16, 2026, by WJHL-TV, an affiliate of CBS and ABC based in Johnson City, Tennessee. The original story is available here. 

By Jeff Keeling 

JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee and KRIVORIVNYA, Ukraine — The setting as Pavlo Rybaruk talked via Zoom interview about his recent remote East Tennessee State University graduation ceremony was fitting: the cold, dark lobby of a museum in his home village in the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains. 

The power was out in a place where the 27-year-old is trying to help preserve the mountain culture of his native Hutsul people, but Rybaruk did have internet connection, unlike at his home nearby. The man who came to Johnson City seven years ago to pursue his master’s in Appalachian Studies has now completed that degree, with an altered thesis that pales in comparison to the altered lives he and his fellow Ukrainians have experienced since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. 

“My life is forever divided into the life before and after the full-scale invasion,” Rybaruk said several weeks after joining with ETSU administrators and professors for that remote graduation ceremony. 

Pavlo Rybaruk sounds a trembita, a long wooden horn traditionally used to communicate over long distances in the Carpathian Mountains, shortly after arriving in Jonson City, Tennessee, in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Ron Roach.)

He returned to his village in the country’s mountains in 2021, still in touch with his thesis advisor, Department of Appalachian Studies Chair Ron Roach. Rybaruk was aiming, Roach said, to determine “how do you preserve the

traditional folk life and agricultural traditions of his homeland in a mountain region, but also help to develop a sustainable economy in his home village?  “And so he returned home, after finishing his coursework here in two years, to run a museum — a small folk museum — and to help his community.” 

Within several months, Rybaruk’s life was upended. Ukraine’s section of the Carpathian Mountains — a fairly small part of the country in its southwest — saw a huge influx of internally displaced people, or refugees who didn’t fully leave the country. 

Rybaruk, meanwhile, continued trying to build up a cultural heritage museum in his home village of Krivorivnya, but also felt the call of patriotism. He’s spent the past four years alternating between war journalism, fundraising, filmmaking and work at home — all while revising his thesis. 

Pavlo Rybaruk prepares to sound his trembita during a visit to Rocky Fork State Park in Unicoi County, Tennessee, while studying Appalachian Studies at ETSU. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Adkins Fletcher.)

The new title? “Mountain Communities During a Time of War: A Case Study of the Hutsul Region in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.” 

“Writing a master’s thesis is a challenge under the best of circumstances, but to have to do it while your country has been invaded is extremely difficult,” Roach said. “So, we’re really proud of Pavlo for completing it.” 

On ETSU’s end, extra scholarship funds were found, and some exceptions were granted to the typical deadlines for completion, Roach said. 

“It was definitely a team effort on the part of the graduate school and the entire university to support him from this end,” he added. “I think it was definitely worth it.” 

Academia as a place of action 

After Rybaruk completed his thesis and qualified for graduation, he got a message from Roach: ETSU administrators wanted to honor his commitment by conducting a special graduation ceremony via Zoom. 

“Our provost and our president and the deans of our colleges all came together to provide a special opportunity via Zoom for Pavlo to graduate,” Roach said. 

It happened when Rybaruk was in the western city of Lviv and in a particularly emotional state. Yet another friend had recently died. 

From left, Ron Roach, chair of the Department of Appalachian Studies; Sharon James McGee, dean of the Graduate School; Joe Bidwell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Kimberly McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs; and ETSU President Brian Noland pose, along with those attending via Zoom a virtual graduation ceremony for Pavlo Rybaruk in December 2026.

“I was like, okay, let’s do this,” Rybaruk said. “And, it was very nice, very sentimental. I was basically crying for the first like 15 minutes of that stuff.” 

In this photo of a computer screen, Pavlo Rybaruk speaks from Ukraine during a special graduation ceremony via Zoom held by ETSU in December 2026.

Roach agreed that the ceremony was meaningful even though it was all virtual. 

“It was moving, and he had the opportunity to speak to us about what he had learned here, about what ETSU and Johnson City had taught him,” Roach said.  

“Mountain regions around the world are similar … he talked about that and how he had learned from what we’ve done here in Appalachia, and how he hopes to apply some of those lessons.” 

Roach said the connection with scholars in the Carpathians, not just in Ukraine but also Romania, has helped him realize “how much mountain places can learn from one another. 

“How can we help one another in developing sustainable ways of living, preserving our cultural traditions, but finding new ways to make a living in rural places while providing access to health care and education and the economic resources that we need.” 

Rybaruk said the ceremony, like almost everything these days, got him thinking about the world, the war, and his own place in it all. 

“I was just thinking about people giving their lives, my friends dying, and at the same time I’m here getting this privilege of still thinking about scholarly work,” Rybaruk recalled. “I didn’t know what to say. I think I said something about like, academia being a place of action.” 

Ron Roach, left, and Pavlo Rybaruk visit an overlook in Unicoi County, Tennessee, shortly after Rybaruk arrived in the United States in 2019 to study Appalachian Studies at ETSU. (Photo courtesy of Ron Roach.)

He said that contrasts with his outlook when he arrived in Johnson City in 2019. 

“As I came to Appalachia, I thought that I can just, you know, live in my own dream world of, like, exploring, philosophy that I like the most, running to Elizabethton and listening to a (bunch) of lectures, and at the same time, like, just doing this work,” Rybaruk said. 

Everything he’s seen and experienced has changed that. Whether it’s in journalism or scholarship, he said, “if you want to write about something, you have to stand for something. You cannot be on the outside of this. Passive empathy is worse than indifference.” 

Having interviewed people from high-ranking officials to regular folks traumatized by war, Rybaruk said, “you don’t have quiet inside of yourself anymore. You cannot relax.” 

Focused on mountain heritage 

During his interview, though, Rybaruk was in the small museum, waiting to see whether the electricity would kick on — it did near the end of the interview — and explaining the museum’s section dedicated to Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit. A Ukrainian partisan during the Stalin era who spent time in the labor camps before returning to Kryvorivnya in her late 20s, Plytka-Horytsvit dedicated her remaining 40-plus years to art and the preservation of Hutsul culture. 

“We have more than 4,000 photographs from the Soviet times of the village that she herself made,” Rybaruk said. “We have 500 handwritten books, thousands of icons and paintings and whatnot. So this is just a little bit of her heritage here.” 

"This year we had a record number of people visiting my village for Hutsul Christmas celebration, and I just snapped this selfie when I was trying to push through the crowd," Pavlo Rybaruk said about this photo. "About 7,000 people stuffed the churchyard. Even soldiers on prosthetic legs climbed the icy hills to see it."

Rybaruk’s mother studied under Plytka-Horytsvit. Both his parents have also been committed to the preservation of Hutsul culture. Rybaruk said he’s not giving up on his commitment to broader goals for Ukraine, but it’s clear he wants to keep a focus on his home and its importance to Ukraine and to the world. 

“There will be another Appalachian Carpathian conference next year, and I’m asking some other Ukrainian scholars to join in, because I just don’t want to lose this dynamic (of collaboration with the Appalachians),” he said. 

Roach believes Rybaruk will continue bringing value to that proposition. 

“I think the work he has done has made a contribution to mountain studies around the world, but I think it’s also helped to strengthen ties between the mountain people of Ukraine and the mountain people of Tennessee.” 

Jeff Keeling is a digital reporter for WJHL-TV, where he applies an extensive background in newspaper journalism to covering the stories of people, places and local governments in East Tennessee.