As a child in the U.S.S.R., Lana Mikhaylichenko dreamed of becoming a teacher. The large apartment block where she lived was home to many children, who were the perfect pupils in her regular games of school.
She became an assistant professor. But then, when she immigrated to Canada in 2003, she thought she was leaving her childhood dream and teaching days behind.
Mikhaylichenko says her move to Canada was a “familiar” immigration story. When she arrived in Toronto with her husband and three teenage children, she didn’t speak English fluently. She held a PhD in chemistry and had been an academic researcher for 10 years, but lacked international experience. This was the first time she’d set foot in another country.
“It was a huge cultural and language shock,” says Mikhaylichenko. As her savings began to run dry, she spent months searching for work, and finally landed a lab technician job at U of T Scarborough. There she met Janet Potter, a senior lecturer at the time, who offered her a job as a teaching assistant. Mikhaylichenko calls Potter her guardian angel. “I realized that I was missing teaching so much.”
Now an associate professor of chemistry, Mikhaylichenko was awarded the UTSC Faculty Teaching Award in 2014. She says her experience as an immigrant has helped her form relationships with students — particularly those who are first-generation Canadians or immigrants themselves.
And the relationships go both ways. “My students are my big inspiration,” she says. “They move me forward, push me to learn and to find new things to teach.”