World View
Bohdan Yarovyi '26

Before arriving at USI in 2022, Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education freshman Bohdan Yarovyi's world consisted of flattened buildings, roads turned to rubble and death after Russia invaded his
Ukrainian homeland. As the war escalated, he fled to Germany while his parents stayed behind. "I go through my days anxious and worrying for their safety," he said. "I lost family and friends in the war.

Yarovyi's escape took him to Germany first before he decided to apply for a U.S. visa. He wanted to pursue a college degree and since his sister, Kateryna (Yarova) Krasin '21 is a USI Nursing graduate and Evansville resident, it was a natural destination. With visa in hand, he applied to USI.

Before leaving Ukraine, Yarovyi considered earning a business degree but did not enjoy it. Instead, he wanted to do something that involved building and enrolled in USI's Civil Engineering program. "I love to create things and was always interested in construction," he said.

As a boy, he traveled with his father, a photographer, on business trips and witnessed him working with all sorts of people. The experience inspired Yarovyi to seek that human element in his own professional career. "Because of war in my home country a lot of cities were destroyed, and we will need engineers to restore the infrastructure and the economy," he said. "I will be happy to help rebuild my motherland."

Yarovyi hopes to graduate in 2026 and then obtain a master's degree in engineering, but there is no guarantee. "For now, I can't plan anything big," he said. "It's quite expensive here and my parents lost their business in Ukraine."