For the past three decades, Ukraine has achieved a dismal distinction. Its levels of corruption have reached higher than any other country in Europe, except Russia.

But a year of war and hardship has wrought changes that many ordinary citizens believe will bring in their wake a new determination to combat the scourge.

“The war has drastically changed … the self-perception of Ukrainians, and this is not free of charge – people have paid with their lives,” says Andrii Vyshnevskyi, the deputy head of Ukraine’s National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NACP), in Kyiv.

“When those fighting in the trenches come back after victory, they will legitimately ask: ‘What have public servants and politicians done to change things?’” he adds. Ukraine must also reassure the United States and other Western donors that it can reliably handle the billions of dollars’ worth of emergency military and humanitarian aid that is flooding into the country.

Ukrainians have become more intolerant of corruption, prompting “demands from society” to tackle it, says Mr. Vyshnevskyi.

Polls show that the number of citizens who believe that corruption is unacceptable under any circumstances rose from 40% before the war began to 64% today. This shift in thinking coincides with the highest “peak of trust” in government for 30 years, says Mr. Vyshnevskyi. Indeed, many Ukrainians glimpse the outlines of a new social pact between the governed and the governing unprecedented in modern Ukrainian history.

In June last year, the legislature passed a “National Anti-Corruption Strategy” that anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International called “a positive signal and clear roadmap” toward “tackling powerful private interests and uprooting entrenched corruption.”

And the first signs that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meant what he had said about tackling corruption came late last January. In Ukraine’s biggest political shake-up since the war began, more than a dozen senior officials – including five regional governors, four deputy ministers, and the deputy head of the president’s own office – were dismissed or stepped down amid corruption allegations.

The detention of a deputy minister of infrastructure for embezzlement was meant to be a “signal to all those whose actions or behavior violate the principle of justice,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, vowing “no return to what used to happen in the past.”

The deputy minister of infrastructure, Vasyl Lozynsky, had belonged to an “organized criminal group,” according to a statement by anti-corruption officials. They said he had taken a $400,000 bribe to help secure equipment purchasing contracts at inflated prices. Also out of a job was the deputy minister of defense, Vyacheslav Shapovalov, on whose watch the ministry signed contracts to supply troops with food at several times the price it would have cost in a supermarket.

Fighting Russia, fighting corruption

The crackdown proved widely popular, in keeping with popular sentiment that the war, for all its horror, also offers an opportunity to shine a light on the darker aspects of Ukrainian life, and root them out.

“People’s expectations are very high,” says Oleksandr Yakovenko, managing partner of EnlivUA, a trading and industrial conglomerate headquartered in Kyiv, that also sponsors a cultural arm to promote Ukrainian national identity. “Our society does not tolerate corruption, as it did before.”

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor

Ukrainian business leader Oleksandr Yakovenko poses for a portrait in his office in Odesa, Ukraine, on Feb. 13, 2023. Ukrainians like Mr. Yakovenko say the social ferment provoked by Russia's invasion could help fast-track reforms to tackle the corruption that has plagued Ukraine for decades.

The task of eradicating corruption is huge, he acknowledges. It could take decades. But with society in ferment since the Russian invasion, Mr. Yakovenko argues, “everything is changing in our country; we have the possibility to do it more quickly.”

“We need to reload the system with all new people,” he says. “It’s a window of opportunity and we have to take it.”

The possibility of such change became apparent soon after the Russian invasion, when President Zelenskyy vowed to stay and fight, when the capital Kyiv did not fall, and when citizen volunteers in the port city of Odesa – fearing a Russian assault – filled 800,000 sandbags with Black Sea beach sand.

Watching them work, Albert Kabakov, the president of the Odesa Yacht Club, predicted at the time that “after the victory, our society will be completely different. Our attitude to people who take bribes will change.”

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor

The president of the Odesa Yacht Club, Albert Kabakov, believes that “after the victory, our society will be completely different. Our attitude to people who take bribes will change.”

Today, Mr. Kabakov says the high-level firings in January were “a good sign, but not enough. We have experience of high-profile cases making a splash and then disappearing.

“It is ridiculous that if you are stealing humanitarian aid, for punishment you just get fired,” he fumes. “You should face a real court and real imprisonment.”

“Ready for a civilizational leap”

But the difficulties go much deeper than malfeasance among top officials, says Mr. Vyshnevskyi of the NACP. “The problem is that citizens still tolerate grassroots corruption.” People offer gifts to their physicians, or give money to teachers to repair schools or to buy equipment, and don’t consider it corrupt.

“It’s difficult to convince people that corruption starts there, in their communities,” he says.

That problem is deeply ingrained, agrees Oleksii Sydorchuk, who on the first day of the war founded a local nonprofit to channel humanitarian donations.

“For me, the biggest problem is not whether the U.S. or Europeans give enough weapons, but that state institutions are not working in the right way,” he says. “For a long time, people did not question authority and what was happening. We need to learn how to do that.”

Scott Peterson/Getty Images/The Christian Science Monitor

Ukrainian humanitarian worker Oleksii Sydorchuk stands amid rolling fields in Novofedorivka, Ukraine, on Feb. 12, 2023. Ukrainians like Mr. Sydorchuk say the sacrifices they have made during the war have increased their expectation of better governance.

“There are two ways to live, by law, or by arrangements,” Mr. Sydorchuk adds, pointing to cases in which local officials reported inflated numbers of displaced people in their districts, so as to skim off excess aid sent to help them.

“The tragedy of Ukraine is that most people in society are loyal to corruption,” he says. So concerned citizens like him “are interested in shifting mindsets. To love your country is not just ‘likes’ on social media.”

Those shifting mindsets are evident to farmer Serhii Khoroschak, whose village, Novofedorivka, sits among endless rolling fields in southern Ukraine.

When he mustered 280 men as a local defense force in the first days of the Russian invasion, little did the area’s largest landowner think that such examples of resistance and courage – replicated across Ukraine – might serve as building blocks for better, and less corrupt, governance in the future.

For three months, facing the imminent threat of a Russian onslaught, the militia and Mr. Khoroschak – a stocky man shaved bald, who uses crutches because he is missing his left leg – stood their ground. They ran half a dozen checkpoints and protected houses and gas and electricity installations.

Their village and the nearby coastal resort of Koblevo became regional hubs for the distribution of humanitarian aid. Mr. Khoroschak provided grain to nearby villages for six months. His men even hid an American-supplied HIMARS rocket system in a nearby grain storage facility.

Their experience of grassroots organization, and of taking responsibility for their community in the face of danger, has created new expectations of the authorities, Mr. Khoroschak says. “The people in power have to be people who went to the front line and saw the suffering, so that before they take money ... as a bribe, they will think 200,000 times.”

“Our nation is ready for a civilizational leap,” he says. “People are ready to accept the changes, 100%. They feel that corruption has no future in Ukraine.”

Oleksandr Naselenko supported reporting for this story.

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Students walk the hallways in route to their classrooms at Sparks High School, Feb. 1, 2023, in Sparks, Nevada. Juniors and seniors in U.S. high schools are navigating the return to in-person learning, with some suggestions for educators about how to best offer support.

Like generations of students before her, Bella Alvarado, a student at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, California, approaches the end of her senior year with mixed feelings.

Proud of her accomplishments and excited for new adventures? Yes. Ready to say goodbye to her childhood and part with friends? Not quite.

For Bella, who was looking forward to “being a kid again,” in-person schooling has been a mixed bag – some normal moments and some big differences. It took time to make new friends, manage a new schedule, and navigate academic expectations despite initially feeling behind.

“Everybody learns at a different pace,” she says. “Everybody processes things differently.”

By and large, American education is back to business-as-usual three years after schools embarked on remote learning. But particularly for juniors and seniors, whose high school experience has been defined by the pandemic, a return to academic demands and routines hasn’t erased the reality of the past few years.

As these upperclassmen slowly ease out of their K-12 career, one question coming to the fore is: Are there lessons districts can draw from current students that may help the younger generations coming after them?

“I don’t think that the normal way of approaching things is going to work for the kids,” says Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. “I think they need something extraordinary right now, and I don’t see a lot of that happening.”

It’s no secret the pandemic hit many students hard – emotionally, academically, or both. Test score data shows precipitous drops in reading and math skills. Thousands of students are “missing” from the public school population. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report in February detailing increased youth mental health challenges, particularly among teen girls and LGBTQ+ teens.

Some students report that even seemingly simple social interactions were jarring at first.

Courtesy of Bella Alvarado

Bella Alvarado, a senior at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, California, recently celebrated her 18th birthday. The soon-to-be graduate says she sees a desire among students to work at their own pace and be more selective about what they learn.

Audrey Shea, a junior at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, found herself freezing up if a classmate dropped something on the ground – unsure how to respond without being awkward. She credits her student council responsibilities with helping her shed some of that social anxiety over time.

“I was lucky enough to gain it back,” she says of her social confidence.

“What do kids really need to know?”

Those snapshots of student well-being reflect what Louise Williamson, an English and peer mediation teacher at Hilltop High School, sees daily. In her 33-year teaching career, Ms. Williamson says she has “never seen so many really bright, capable students struggle so much.”

Last year, an eerie quiet settled over her classroom, with students glued to their phones rather than conversing with each other. While that has improved in some aspects, Ms. Williamson says students remain unable to focus. The observation inspired her to create a unit about phone addiction in her English class this year. Students read articles on the subject, discussed findings as a group, and developed their own goals.

It’s an example of reshaping curriculum to meet student needs, she says, even if they’re subjects not directly outlined in state content standards.

“We are in the process as teachers of figuring out, ‘What do kids really need to know right now?’” she says. “And, of course, like always, the system is way behind us.”

Bella, the Hilltop senior, says the rigidity of the high school structure doesn’t mesh with routines established during distance learning. 

Her transfer to the school – days after her 15th birthday – coincided with the move to distance learning in March 2020. By the time she turned 16, her roles had multiplied. She juggled caring for her grandmother, who had injured her leg; tending to her ill great-grandmother; and guiding her younger brother and cousins through their online schooling – all while attempting to keep track of her own studies and learning to drive.

“I don’t think I sat down much at the time,” she says.

Now, she’s sitting hours each day in class. She no longer serves as a pseudo-teacher for her brother and cousins, but other household responsibilities remain. Plus, she works at SeaWorld, which keeps her tied up until 11:30 p.m. some weeknights.

The soon-to-be graduate says she sees a desire among students to work at their own pace and be more selective about what they learn.

“There’s no such thing as going back to education before COVID,” she says. “I strongly believe that nothing will ever be the same. No matter how hard we try to get it back to how it was, the students’ academic mentality has changed. The education system has changed. And the teachers have changed.”

And change isn’t necessarily negative as far as Melinda Lu is concerned. The senior at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut, says her digital skills flourished during the pandemic. She comfortably navigates Google Workspace and Microsoft Office.  

Photo Courtesy of Melinda Lu

Melinda Lu, a senior at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut, says distance learning enhanced her digital skills.

The pandemic also afforded her an opportunity – joining a student equity advisory board – that otherwise may have been challenging, given her parents’ work schedules. Melinda participated in activities virtually, a situation she says helped her overcome shyness.

“What I want adults to know is that the skills that we’ve developed as the younger generation are useful,” she says. “These digital skills will actually help us in the future.”

Efforts to include students 

The teens’ observations underscore what Ms. Lake, from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, sees as an occasional disconnect between what they want and need versus what adults think students want and need. She says school districts should be sending more student surveys and including more students at the table when decisions are being made at the board level.

In Greenville County Schools – the public district in upstate South Carolina – two to four students from each of the district’s 15 traditional high schools and its early college program meet monthly as part of Interhigh Council. The gathering allows district leaders to hear directly from the students it serves, says Jeff McCoy, associate superintendent for academics. In those meetings, students have brought up mental health concerns and some of the difficulties associated with missing key transitional years in person.

“When you go from eighth to 10th grade ... that’s kind of difficult because you’ve missed out on all that,” he says.

To help students cope, Mr. McCoy says the Greenville district has relied on its existing program that places at least one mental health specialist in each school. The district also leveraged federal COVID-19 funding to double, and in some cases triple, the number of math and literacy interventionists working to bridge academic gaps.

There is some evidence that it’s working. Mr. McCoy says 60% of the district’s schools exceeded their pre-pandemic test scores last year.

Ms. Lake says she is starting to see some school districts – though not enough – reimagine the high school experience and devise instructional strategies that better prepare students for the future and keep them engaged.

“Things can change and must change,” she says. “I think there is a growing recognition that career readiness, career relevancy has to be more front and center. And I’m seeing a lot of school systems moving in that direction – trying to.”

It likely won’t be soon enough for today’s upperclassmen.

Audrey says she wishes more teachers had devoted time to covering past lessons rather than diving into entirely new content. Her first year of algebra occurred during distance learning, which she says put her at a disadvantage going forward.

Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor

Audrey Shea, a junior at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, sits outside a coffee shop on March 27, 2023. She says she wishes more teachers had devoted time to covering past lessons rather than diving into entirely new content.

“You’re kind of lost in the dark because you don’t really ... fully understand what you learned the last two years,” she says.

As Bella looks toward the future, she envisions a career as a licensed mental health counselor. She credits therapy with helping her navigate grief and anger after the deaths of her parents as a child. When the pandemic hit and threw more challenges her way, she says she was better equipped to handle them.

Still, Bella recognizes what she lost because she needed to grow up quickly.

“Now, I see myself trying to heal my inner child,” she says.

On her recent 18th birthday, a wide smile lit up her face when she received “Sesame Street” themed balloons. It offered her a slice of childhood – if only for a moment.

Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/Reuters/File

Passengers go through the departure hall in Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok International Airport, Dec. 29, 2022.

When a retired IT professional from Chengdu traveled to the United States last week for the first time after years of pandemic-related isolation in China, he worried how U.S. border authorities might scrutinize a Chinese traveler.

To his relief, the American officers greeted him not with suspicion, but with a welcome.

“The border officials were very relaxed ... and polite. They told me to enjoy my stay,” he says, pausing to chat while visiting the original Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market. “I realized that the U.S. border is fine, the authorities are good, and the ordinary people are also totally normal – it’s really great, just like before.” 

He asked to withhold his name out of concern over possible repercussions in China.

Beijing lifting its draconian “zero-COVID” regime in December has opened the door for mainland Chinese to venture abroad again for leisure. The beginnings of a surge of Chinese traveling overseas is vital not only for business – prior to the pandemic, Chinese travelers made 155 million international trips and spent about $245 billion in 2019 – but for human connection, experts say.

Geopolitical tensions have mounted between China and advanced economies in the West and Asia during China’s three years of isolation, and perception gaps have grown. The return of Chinese visitors to the United States, Europe, and other countries in Asia has the potential to rekindle more friendly ties and mutual compassion on a person-to-person level, experts say.

“Precisely because of all the challenges we are facing now, travel and people-to-people interactions become even more crucial,” says Xiang Li, professor of tourism and director of the U.S.-Asia Center for Tourism and Hospitality Research at Temple University. “Once people travel to a destination perceived as a hostile country, talk with people, and see the country through their own eyes, perceptions may very well change.”

A world unlocked

China’s years of mass COVID-19 testing, restricted mobility, and constant threat of lockdowns and quarantines generated a collective trauma that has left many Chinese eager for a change of scene, experts say.

“It was a global PTSD moment, in China in particular because the past three years did affect many aspects of life and work,” says Dr. Li.

A Chinese scholar from Beijing describes her feeling of entrapment under “zero-COVID” mandates as similar to “riding on a high speed train that we couldn’t get off, and we didn’t know when it would stop.” She also withheld her name to avoid being identified in China.

Keen to take a break from China, she was able to obtain a visiting scholar position at an American university and left the Chinese capital for Seattle last fall.

Across China, the pandemic spurred the realization among many Chinese – especially the urban, educated, middle class – that international travel was no longer a rare luxury, but instead an indispensable part of their lifestyle.

AP/File

Residents look out from barriers around the recently locked-down Haizhu district in Guangzhou, China, Nov. 11, 2022. Beijing lifting its draconian "zero-COVID" regime has opened the door for mainland Chinese to venture abroad again for leisure, and many are eager for a change of scene.

Emily, a Chinese university student in Beijing who asked to withhold her last name for her protection, describes feeling immobilized last December while the world was moving on. “The outside world was changing very rapidly,” she says. “I was locked in my university, so my life was frozen.”

She left China in January to study in California. It was her first trip to the U.S. “I was just looking for something I wanted, but I didn’t know what that something is,” Emily says, “so I decided to see another country.”

This pent-up demand for travel translated into a flurry of online trip searches immediately after the “zero-COVID” policy ended. Outbound travel bookings surged 640% during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday season starting in January 2023, according to data from China’s Trip.com reservation platform. As of March, outbound air ticket bookings were up 419% compared with the same period in 2022, and some of the top destinations were Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, the United States, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

“With borders now open and many restrictions gone, Trip.com Group has seen tremendous pick up for both domestic and outbound travel,” says company spokesperson Chen Si. “Customers have been traveling within China for the past three years, so outbound demand is strong.”

Overcoming fear through connection

Nevertheless, several factors are also constraining the growth in Chinese travelers heading abroad – from economic uncertainty in China, to costly and limited international flights, as well as other logistical shortfalls such as slow visa processing. 

Traveler concerns over safety and hostility overseas also loom large, experts say. Strained relations with the West, and the U.S. in particular, exacerbate worries that individual Chinese travelers have about threats from anti-Asian racism, crime, and being viewed as spies, says Dr. Li.

Coming to the U.S. for the first time, “my relatively big worry was safety,” says the Chinese scholar from Beijing. “I knew there were guns, and China’s media reported on it a lot.”

Yet after living in the Seattle area for a few months, she says her concerns have largely disappeared. “It’s very tolerant here and very friendly,” she says. “There’s a lot of trust.”

Seattle welcomed nearly 20,000 visitors from China last year and expects to receive 56,000 this year, compared to about 166,000 in 2019, according to the nonprofit marketing organization Visit Seattle. 

As for Emily, she says she’s already met several new friends in California, and is impressed by the breadth of their interests. “Maybe they are a math Ph.D., but they have many passions in their life and can achieve it easily here,” she says.

Indeed, China travel experts believe that although it may take time, the world will gradually see the return of large numbers of mainland Chinese visitors – a force that could boost understanding and compassion.

For the IT professional from Chengdu, the revival of exchanges has the potential to help dispel misperceptions that ballooned during the pandemic.

“We have an information asymmetry, because a lot of Americans who haven’t gone to China are talking about China, and a lot of Chinese who haven’t been to the United States are talking about the United States,” he says.

China’s state-run media and the U.S. media carry largely negative reports about the U.S. and China, respectively, he notes. 

“I don’t want China and the United States to have too many conflicts,” he says, “because the people are all very good.”

Manish Swarup/AP

A huge billboard in New Delhi portrays Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the most popular world leader. Opponents call him an authoritarian populist.

They’re the new swing states, but not the kind that sway U.S. elections.

They’re the world’s swing states, with an important say in two international geopolitical contests of critical importance to the United States: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the tussle between Washington and Beijing over their rival visions of the 21st-century world.

Wooing these countries is presenting the U.S. with a delicate and daunting diplomatic challenge.

Dozens in all, and widely varied, they feel no imperative to come down on America’s side. Brazil, South Africa, and India, for example, are all members of the so-called BRICS economic partnership alongside China and Russia. In the Middle East, traditional U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia have been deepening their ties with Beijing and Moscow.

And while America’s core allies in Europe and Asia share President Joe Biden’s view that today’s world faces a straightforward contest between democracy and autocracy, many swing states dismiss this framing as unhelpful, even hypocritical.

That has forced the Biden administration to find a different strategy. Washington is toning down talk of defending democracy, in favor of a realpolitik focus on bolstering ties and developing areas of clear mutual interest.

Mr. Biden is not happy to trim his diplomatic sails. Helping democracy prevail over autocracy has been a centerpiece of his foreign policy.

But by selectively muting that message to swing states, he’s hopeful of making a virtue of the fact that they are still open to persuasion. They have an existing relationship with America. And while many have indeed also been developing closer ties with China and Russia, none seems minded to become full-scale allies of either autocracy.

Bay Ismoyo/AP

U.S. President Joe Biden (left) talks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G-20 Summit in Indonesia last November. Seeking allies in his global democracy-strengthening campaign, Mr. Biden has not chastised the Indian government for its human rights failings.

Ultimately, Mr. Biden has concluded that his overriding goal – a world tilting not toward autocracy, but democracy – will best be served by deeper relationships with the swing states.

Can Washington foster such ties?

The administration’s approach to one major swing state, India, illustrates the commitment and careful calibration it is bringing to the task.

With 1.4 billion people, India is the world’s second-most-populous country. It sits to the south of the formerly Soviet Central Asian republics and shares a periodically contested border with China.

India’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world, giving New Delhi increasing diplomatic prominence. Later this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to host the annual G-20 summit.

India is a democracy. Yet China is a major trading partner. Since the start of the Ukraine war, India has also bought hugely increased quantities of oil from Russia and brushed aside calls to condemn Russia’s invasion.

And while democratically elected, Mr. Modi has promoted a Hindu-nationalist brand of politics that discriminates against Muslims and other minorities, constrains civil society, and has led to the arrest and prosecution of journalists and critics. Last month, an Indian court sentenced opposition politician Rahul Gandhi to two years’ imprisonment for having suggested that the prime minister was corrupt.

Democracy watchdog Freedom House rates India only “partly free.”

The Biden administration’s navigation through such issues has illustrated its readiness to turn the occasional diplomatic blind eye in its dealings with key swing states.

Mr. Modi was a prominent guest last week at President Biden’s second Summit of Democracies. As for the Gandhi verdict, a brief State Department statement said only that Washington was watching as the case went through the courts, and had engaged with India “on our shared commitment to democratic values – including freedom of expression.”

Altaf Qadri/AP

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a press conference after he was expelled from Parliament, a day after a court convicted him of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking the surname Modi in an election speech. Opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi say democracy and free speech are under assault by a government seeking to crush any dissent.

The major focus remained on strengthening relations.

Ahead of the democracy summit, Mr. Biden joined Mr. Modi in extolling the “historic purchase” by Air India of 200 Boeing airliners. Trade is expanding, reaching roughly $120 billion last year, edging the U.S. ahead of China as India’s leading trade partner.

Washington has also been strengthening security ties through India’s membership in the so-called Quad, alongside the U.S., Japan, and Australia, and is stepping up cooperation on strategic technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computers.

It is not that Mr. Biden expects India to reverse course on Ukraine, or to dramatically pare back ties with China. He hopes, rather, that a deeper relationship will embed a sense of shared interests and benefits that might lead, over time, to a more broadly shared understanding on major world issues.

But as Mr. Biden reaches out to swing states, he’ll know there is no guarantee that the uncomfortable trade-offs involved will yield such benefits.

That has become clear in Saudi Arabia, a traditional U.S. ally still critically reliant on Washington for its security, but which has recently been dramatically strengthening its ties with Russia and China.

Last year, Mr. Biden set aside his sharp public criticism of Mohammed bin Salman’s human rights record, in order to meet the Saudi leader and reemphasize the countries’ shared interests. The hope was that the kingdom would increase oil output to help offset the effects of the Ukraine war.

Instead, the Saudis and their fellow oil producers announced a million-barrel cut – benefiting not only Saudi coffers but funneling added funds into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. Any lingering hope in Washington of reinvigorating the alliance took a fresh hit last Sunday, when the Saudis announced a further production cut.

With this newly minted swing state, there seems to be no early prospect of the pendulum moving back.

A sleek chestnut stallion circles the edge of the indoor riding ring heading for a jump. The horse isn’t running quite fast enough and stumbles. 

“That’s right, keep going. You got it,” urges Patricia Kelly from just inside the door, encouraging both horse and trainer with hands on her hips, boots firmly planted. 

After some urging from the trainer in the center of the ring, the horse picks up the pace and clears the next jump effortlessly. Ms. Kelly, who runs this riding stable in Hartford, Connecticut, smiles and cheers. She’s been encouraging both horses and riders for decades. 

Ms. Kelly established Ebony Horsewomen Inc. in 1984 as a way to introduce the joys of horseback riding to women in the Hartford area. In the three decades since, EHI has grown to include 16 horses, 25 miles of well-maintained trails, stables, riding rings, public lessons, and advanced jumping and dressage team training. It has also drawn accolades for its leadership in equine therapy training – using horses to help riders heal from trauma.

Through this work, Ms. Kelly is raising awareness around Black equestrians. People of color make up just 10% of the U.S. Equestrian Foundation, which oversees equine competition of all levels across the country. 

One challenge for underrepresented communities is access to stables and riding centers. EHI, situated within Hartford’s 693-acre Keney Park and accessible by public transportation, draws nearly 400 young people to its programs. And that’s not all. In January, EHI awarded its first annual Black Boots Award to recognize “the work, presence, and accolades of Black equestrians in the horse industry.” 

“African Americans have been unsung individuals in the equestrian field,” says Jeffrey Fletcher, president of the Ruby & Calvin Fletcher African American History Museum in Stratford, Connecticut, who co-sponsored the Black Boots Award. “She broke the glass ceiling because you don’t normally see African Americans leading the charge in the equestrian world, and Ms. Kelly has been doing that, kind of operating under the radar.” 

Courtesy of Patricia Kelly

Patricia Kelly, founder of Ebony Horsewomen Inc., is a champion of diversity.

“A champion” 

Ms. Kelly and the work of EHI have been noticed across the country. In Connecticut, she was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame and earned the state’s African American Affairs woman of the year. She earned a community service award from the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials. And in Texas, she’s been inducted into halls of fame for both the National Cowboys of Color Museum and National Cowgirl Museum.

Those honors bring attention to the role of Black women in the equestrian field, which lacks a robust record. “There is not the stuff out there on women of color,” says Diane Vela, associate executive director of the National Cowgirl Museum. “It takes a champion like Patricia Kelly out there talking about it. ... She is so much about making a change, and being a mover and shaker, and starting these things like Black Boots Award. ... That’s a critical piece to getting more representation and acknowledgment of all these equestrians of color.”

In March, EHI will open the Mary Fields Museum and Training Space, honoring the first African American woman to serve as a horseback-riding mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service at the turn of the 20th century. “There’s someone everyone should know about,” says Ms. Vela. “This incredible woman who protected these stagecoaches. ... How many more Stagecoach Marys are there that we don’t know about?” 

An unexpected focus

But Ms. Kelly never set out to open an equestrian center, let alone one specially designed to help children and veterans recover from unseen wounds. After serving as a message decoder in the Marines during the Vietnam War, then practicing law and raising a family in Hartford, Ms. Kelly created Ebony Horsewomen to lead rides for Black women as a way to unwind and connect. One day the riders encountered a group of children playing in a park.

“Is that a real horse?” one child asked. And in that moment, Ms. Kelly knew that her group would take on a bigger purpose. “It became quite apparent that what the kids needed was greater than what we needed,” she says.

At first, Ms. Kelly took horses and riding lessons out to children in different neighborhoods. Eventually, EHI purchased its first building in the park and gradually expanded its offerings. 

“This is something that they might never have had the opportunity to experience,” she says, “because, one, the equestrian sport is very, very expensive, and, two, it is never located in their community, and, three, they’re not operated by people of their culture. Until we came along.”

The mother of three, attuned to the needs of the area’s children, identified other ways to support them. Soon EHI went beyond horses to include a summer garden where students can learn to grow and cook with fresh produce, spend time reading, and undertake science experiments.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff

LaShawnda Phillips is an EHI graduate and now a barn manager for the program. She will graduate from the University of Connecticut this spring in animal science.

Reaching every child

One of those students was Fred Wright, who is now in charge of Keney Park’s equestrian rangers – and recipient of the 2023 Black Boots Award in the Equine Tradesmen category. He started in the program when he was 7 years old, with riding lessons, mentorship, reading classes, science classes, and horsemanship.

Mr. Wright went on to attend Cornell University and its farrier program, where he learned how to trim a horse’s hoofs and nail on shoes. He now travels around the country as a farrier, in addition to looking after the EHI horses. 

EHI, and working around horses, gave Mr. Wright “a different perspective on life.” 

“I always had the choice to go back home to the crap that I was born into, like the gangs and the drugs and all that other stuff,” he says. “As long as I’m here, I’m safe.” 

Ms. Kelly watched children from disadvantaged backgrounds blossom as they worked in and around the stables and grew interested in the human-horse connection. She and her director spent several years getting certified in equine-assisted therapies. “Everywhere we went, it was obvious that I was the only Black person there,” says Ms. Kelly, who brought her experience as a Black woman to the work. Now EHI offers training in “culturally competent” therapies to address a variety of mental health needs. 

Students from every Hartford-area school have come through her program. And thanks to her continually expanding efforts, Ms. Kelly has made EHI – and Hartford – a leader in access and opportunities for future equestrians from all backgrounds. 

“It’s life altering,” she says. “It changes your direction to something you didn’t even know existed.”

Reuters

A women stops to take a photo of the first Ramadan lights installation at Piccadilly Circus on the eve of Ramadan, in London, Britain, March 21.

To the world’s nearly 2 billion Muslims, the holy month of Ramadan – celebrated this year from March 22 to April 22 – is a time for spiritual reflection, daily fasts, and acts of kindness. That’s hardly the impression given to the world by news every year of violent clashes during Ramadan between Israeli police and Muslim Palestinians worshiping at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. Two years ago, the clashes led to an 11-day conflict with hundreds killed. This year, the violence has been less, yet it still taints the holiday’s reputation.

That may be changing – although not because Israelis and Palestinians are resolving their differences. Rather, non-Muslims in many parts of the world are honoring the celebration of Ramadan in different ways, reflecting back the spirit of inclusivity and generosity that Ramadan means to Muslims.

The clearest sign of this shift is commercial. Target, for example, now offers decoration kits for Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that follows Ramadan. In 2021, Mattel’s American Girl brand began to sell celebration outfits for Eid al-Fitr. The Asda supermarket sells special foods for Ramadan’s get-togethers.

In the United States, more schools are making accommodations for Muslim students to maintain their studies while practicing their faith during Ramadan. Soccer leagues in England have new rules to allow Muslim players to take time at sunset to break their daytime fast. Similar breaks are being offered in the U.S. leagues. “Thank you for having this respect for our religion,” tweeted Steven Moreira, a French player for the Columbus Crew team in Ohio.

For the first time, Coventry Street near London’s Piccadilly Square was lit up with holiday lights last month to celebrate Ramadan. Hundreds of people came to the lighting event. The area has been known for its Christmas displays every December.

“It’s really beautiful to see our non-Muslim neighbors taking an interest in the light,” Aisha Desai, founder of the event, told CBC. “There’s just so many things happening now coming from the younger generation. And it’s really causing, creating, this shift. ... It’s a beautiful moment.”

The trend seems to be global. “This year’s Ramadan is notable for the number of traditionally non-Muslim communities, institutions and companies going above and beyond to understand the cultural nuance of the event and support their friends, colleagues, customers and citizens during the period of observance,” states a new report from marketing giant Wunderman Thompson.

Within Israel, Muslims celebrating Ramadan often receive the support of people of other faiths. In the city of Acre, one Christian man, Michel Ayoub, is famous for walking the streets after 2 a.m. during Ramadan to remind his Muslim neighbors to prepare a meal before their daytime fasting.

“We are of the same people and ultimately pray to the same God,” he told Haaretz. “They should see that there’s no need to butcher one another. It’s possible to live together.”

With good judgment and composure, the people of Israel can show respect for each other, wrote Haaretz journalist Nir Hasson. “Ramadan can be what it is intended to be according to Muslim tradition, a month of kindness and serenity.”