To mark International Mother Language Day on February 21, the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) opened the photo exhibit of Dr. Roksolana Tymiak-Lonchyna, a donor of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation who lives in the Chicago area. UCU also held a student conference that day to turn attention to the question of the influence of foreign languages on the Ukrainian language.

Speaking at the opening of the exhibit, Oleh Yaskiv, Director of UCU’s Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Center, noted that, though Dr. Tymiak-Lonchyna was born and still resides in the USA, she has always been very aware of the situation in Ukraine. Since 2002, she has regularly visited Ukraine. Her impressions of the presidential election of 2004 and Orange Revolution formed the basis of the book “Conscience Calls,” and in 2010 her photo exhibit “To Ukraine with Love” was shown in Chicago, Kyiv, Lviv, and Chervonohrad. This current exhibit, now on display on the first floor of the Sheptytsky Center, is dedicated to linguistic particularities in the public space of Ukrainian cities.