Elvis legend helps ease Ukraine immigrant's
relocation to America


When Oleg Savchenko and his family were told six years ago that a community had been found to help the Ukrainians escape anti-Semitism and relocate in America, they were excited, but a bit bewildered-until they discovered they were coming to the home of Elvis.

Because of immigration procedures, they could not move directly to the United States. They lived in Austria for two months and then spent three months in Italy, waiting for a Jewish community in America to sponsor them.

They were finally told that the Jewish community in Memphis had agreed to help them, but they had never heard of Memphis.

"We didn't know where it was or anything about it," said Savchenko, who graduates May 9 and has been accepted to two medical schools. "We thought maybe it was in Egypt and that made us very nervous. Then they told us it was where Elvis Presley lived. We knew about Elvis."

The move did not come without a price for Savchenko, who came to this country along with his mother, brother, maternal grandparents, an aunt and a cousin.

"Basically, we had to sell everything we had," said Savchenko. "Then we found there was a small problem. The Russian government only allows a person to take $135 when they immigrate. We had a condominium type of home. We sold it but only had a certain amount of money we could take with us. I think the Russians are very careful about protecting the currency. They didn't want too much currency getting out of the country."

Savchenko and his family members invested their money in some expensive watches and other items they could take with them and sell. They also invested in some Persian rugs.

When they arrived in Memphis, they told their new-found friends that they had some rugs to sell. The only thing was, with their rudimentary command of English, they pronounced the word "rugs" as "drugs."

"We called our friends and told them, 'We've got some drugs from Russia to get some extra money-will you help us sell them?'" Savchenko said. "They got very nervous. They said, 'What would we do with drugs?' Eventually, they figured out we were talking about rugs and it remains a joke. We sold the rugs. The money came in very handy, especially when we first got here and my mother and relatives weren't working because they were still learning English."

His mother is now a systems analyst for Dobbs International. The entire family became U.S. citizens July 15, 1995. They have no desire to return to Ukraine.

Savchenko graduated with honors from White Station High School in Memphis and came to Vanderbilt with a financial aid package consisting of University grants, federal loans and a work-study program. For the past two years, he has received the Clyde H. Sharp Scholarship, which benefits Vanderbilt students from west Tennessee who have a strong academic record and financial need.

"I wanted to go to a good academic university," Savchenko said. "Also, having just come to America a couple of years earlier, I wanted to be kind of close to home. Vanderbilt was just the perfect place. When I came to visit, I knew I had to go to this university. It was so pretty, so beautiful."

He found himself struggling in biology his first semester at Vanderbilt. His limited reading skills and the in-depth memorization the course required resulted in his receiving a "C" in the course. It was not a good start for a pre-med major.

His dream to become a physician fueled his determination to master biology. He took a speed reading course and tried new approaches to study and organize the assigned material. He even read different biology periodicals in order to increase his English vocabulary and to gain more background knowledge in biology.

He has been a dean's list student for five straight semesters. He was named to Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Lambda Delta national freshman honor societies and received the Alpha Lambda Delta award for senior students. Professor David Nunnally selected him to serve as a teaching assistant in a biology lab this semester.

Savchenko has given freely of his time for community service activities. He has volunteered in the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, making bedside visits to the patients and trying to provide them with emotional support and entertainment via conversations, games and magic. He worked for two years in the weight room at the Student Recreation Center. This past spring he volunteered in the Vanderbilt Sports Medicine Center to learn more about that area of medicine.

Once a week he taught a class on Judaism to Ukrainian and Russian immigrants who, like him, were denied the opportunity to know and practice their spiritual heritage in their home countries.

The Health Professions Advisory Committee recently named Savchenko as the 11th recipient of the Dana W. Nance Prize. The $1,100 cash award goes to a student who, in the words of Dr. Nance, has "demonstrated perseverance in overcoming academic, financial, or social obstacles to succeed in the pre-medical curriculum." In addition, the recipient "must embody the attributes of a caring physician and possess an abiding sense of ethical and moral concern for the patient."
-by Lew Harris

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This document created May 22, 1997
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