West Springfield Resident Spread Her Wings at STCC
“I
felt like a butterfly spreading my wings,” said West Springfield resident
Lyudmila Matushevsky about her last year at Springfield Technical Community
College. Staying on a third year to complete a double major – adding
accounting to business management – gave her the time to see what she could
accomplish. “I envisioned myself stepping out of my comfort zone, and pursuing
something new,” she said.
Matushevsky ran for president of the student government association, and won. She joined the STCC women’s basketball team and played center on offense and forward on defense. She received the prestigious Edmond P. Garvey Award as the outstanding student leader in the class of 2008, and led the graduating class into the MassMutual Center arena for the ceremony. She was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa international honor society and also the Alpha Beta Gamma business honor society. She helped organize, and participated in, student events. And “it’s been quite a journey,” she said.
Selected as the student speaker at commencement, to represent the graduating class, she said, “It has not been easy for most of us, and I know this because it wasn’t easy for me. Many of us followed a traditional way of getting to this point, from elementary school through high school and then straight to college. But for most of us it’s not been a traditional way. Some of us went into the military right after high school, and some got married and had kids, some came back to college to get another degree, but as for me, I moved to the United States when I was 13 years old.”
Matushevsky’s family, although Russian, lived in Kyrgyzstan, in the far eastern part of the former Soviet Union. When Luda was one year old, they moved to Lithuania, and when she was 13, they obtained permission to emigrate.
Their new country was a shock on arrival. Luda’s first reaction to America, on landing at JFK airport in New York was, “So many people!”
Matushevsky was immediately immersed in American culture. She started at West Springfield Middle School, speaking no English. “I watched cartoons on TV for two months, from July when we got here, until September when I started school, so I understood a little English, but I couldn’t speak it.”
She learned quickly and went on to West Springfield High School - “I loved it” – and then was encouraged by her family to consider further education. “I almost hoped I wouldn’t be accepted at STCC,” she said. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to college.”
Now, as graduates,” she said at the commencement ceremony, “it’s just the beginning of our journey. And when those hard times come around, just believe that you can, believe that you will, know that all your dreams are real.”
After achieving success in the first part of her college career, Luda is now going on. Next year she’ll be at Springfield College majoring in recreation management.