INDIANAPOLIS — Their music echoes through the halls of Hamilton Lugar School of Global Studies and International Studies as Indiana University's Slavic choir begins to sing.
Ukrainian music lifts the spirits of those walking past the classroom where the choir is rehearsing on IU's Bloomington campus.
"I have my ensemble. We sing. It helps relax and also reduce stress," said Iryna Voloshyna, a Ukrainian PhD student studying folklore at IU.
For Voloshyna, these songs give her a sense of home. And with the war in Ukraine now hitting the one-year mark, home has never felt further away.
"Mentally, I'm there, but also, I live in the world where I also have to do work and study and I have my family. So it's hard," Voloshyna said.
Voloshyna said she was on the phone with a friend in Kyiv one year ago when Russia first began bombing Ukraine. It wasn't totally unexpected, she said.
"But still it was shocking and heartbreaking," she said.
For now, Voloshyna said her loved ones are safe. Some of her friends are fighting on the front lines while others do what they can to help Ukraine to fight back.
It's hard for her to be so far away from home right now, she said.
"You just feel really helpless, you don't know what to do," Voloshyna said. "And of course, a lot of people were in a state of shock in Ukraine, hiding in the subways and advocating their families and the children. But being here, you realize you're a half a world away and all you could do is protest in Bloomington. And you don't know if it's going to help."
But she hasn't been sitting on the sidelines. Soon after Russia's attack on Ukraine began, Voloshyna said folklorists, ethnomusicologists, museums, scholars all immediately started reaching out.
"They were scared to death, of course. But they were scared for their work that they have been doing for decades, specifically about archives of folklore and ethnomusicology in Ukraine," Voloshyna said.
And there are concerns that in Russia's attempts to colonize and take over Ukraine, she said, and that they'll target Ukrainian archives and cultural traditions, wiping them out.
"They asked me if I could help them find a safe cloud space, preferably outside of Ukraine where they could upload their materials," Voloshyna said.
Museum and university archives filling terabytes of data are all safely stored now. But she said after other Ukrainian archive websites were hacked, fears linger.
"Those concerns are real. And we with our colleagues are thinking about partnering with institutions we can work with who can really provide a safe, reliable space so that anything like that is not possible," Voloshyna said.
With the war in Ukraine now one year in, Voloshyna said she believes victory is realistic. It's a goal the Ukranian people are devoted to reaching. But, she said, they're not there yet.
"The war is not over. People are still suffering, people are fighting, people are displaced, lost their homes, lost lives. So we are continuing this work, doing what we can," Voloshyna said.
Until she's able to go home to Ukraine, Voloshyna stays connected to her home, her people and her family through music, comforted by those who come every week to come raising their voices with hers.
"They come and sing those songs and really means a lot to me," Voloshyna said.
Voloshyna was recognized for her work in preserving Ukrainian history, receiving an award from the American Folklore Society for her work.