Olena Frolyak

Then:
Olena Frolyak and I first met in 1992 or 1993. I was looking for someone to send to an internship training program at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. She was a recent grad and working in journalism. I was at the Renaissance Foundation and collaborating with Internews Network.

Olena grew up in a village in the Carpathians. You should know that Kosiv is full of artisans who make beautiful household objects from wood. The decorative spoons, boxes and plates are carved by hand and have intricate inlays of beads an mother of pearl. Kosiv, in the early 90's at least, was *not* full of many phone lines. After meeting Olena in Kyiv, I was able to get things lined up for her to attend the program. She fit the profile of the program, she had the right background, was in the right stage of her career etc. But then the hard part started: I needed to get in touch with her. She was visiting her family in Kosiv, and their home did not have a phone. Somehow I got word to her via a complicated string of contacts. She got to a phone and called me back. The connection was horrible. I could barely hear her.

Somehow we made it. She collected her paperwork for the visa and shipped out to Moscow to process the paperwork. (This was before the US had a consular presence in Kyiv.) Olena returned to Kyiv crushed. Her visa application was denied. She was young and unmarried. The right profile for the journalism internship was the wrong program for the Consular division of the US embassy. Oops. Exchanges were still pretty rare are there were some kinks to work out in the system. I gave Olena a pep talk and assured her that we'll find a way to make it work. 'The US is opening an embassy in Kyiv soon. We'll apply for the visa here!' she remembers me telling her.

And it worked. The embassy opened. We reapplied. Olena went from the backwoods of the Carpathians to Atlanta, Georgia. CNN was booming. Olena returned to Ukraine and worked at several different news shows. (Including some that I helped to launch.)

Now:

Olena heads up the news operation for one of the largest broadcasters in Ukraine. She has been with the same company for about 8 years and took over the leadership less than 12 months ago. She also runs her own bi-monthly segment called SvitloNews (watch it at svitlonews.com.ua).

Olena married Serhij Solovyov, a camera man. They have 2 kids, a boy and a girl. After living in a small apartment in the city the family designed and built a custom home that is on the banks fo the river Dnipro and in the near suburbs. It's a 10 minute bus ride to the last metro stop. Their older daughter commutes from school on her own by public transport.

By the time they were designing their house, Olena and Serhij had traveled quite a bit. I had lined Serhij up with a trip to the US whe we were working together at the International Media Center. They've been to Western Europe, Asia, Africa. They collected ideas of houses that they liked and put it together to make their home.


The house is not huge. There is a nice foyer, eat in kitchen, master bedroom and 2 kids bedrooms on the first floor. The open stairs lead up to a den that is lined with portraits and awards of Oleana, the media personality. There is also a playroom and a small office, under the eaves where Solovyov has his computer set up to play video games. His father was an M-25 pilot in the Soviet air force. They travelled a lot, but Solovyov did not pass the eye exam.



Outside there is a big lawn. Instead of building a huge brick fence (as is currently the style) Olena and Serhij opted for an open fence. "Хай дивляться! Ми не майємо що ховати." (Let them look. We have nothing to hide.) is their explanation for the design choice.

Recently they planted a small garden. It is minuscule compared to what Olena and her neighbors had in Kosiv. We joked that it looked more like Michelle Obama's garden in the White House.