Mariia Vainshtein dreamed of going to America for college. The war in Ukraine brought her there sooner

Anzhelika Kotlyantseva can sum up her first impression of the United States in one word.

“Safety.”

That’s what she felt when she arrived from Odesa, Ukraine, with her two daughters, Mariia and Anna, not long after Russia invaded her country in early 2022.

“We left my husband and I didn’t know when I might see him again, or if I’d see him again,” says Kotlyanstseva, who was an elementary school teacher in Ukraine. “I left my house, and it took me four days to get here. Once I was here, I felt safety for me and my daughters.”

After a tension-filled trip that took them through Moldova, Romania and Turkey, Kotlyanstseva and her daughters finally landed in the Mill Basin neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Her husband, Oleksandr, stayed behind because men were forbidden from leaving the suddenly embattled Ukraine.

This chaotic chain of events came as a particular shock to the older of those daughters, Mariia Vainshtein, then 13. The day before the first Russian bombs began to rain down on her city, she asked her history teacher if she thought there would be a war.

“She said she didn’t think a war was going to start, because she knows history,” Vainshtein says.

That turned out to be the last time Mariia would talk to her teacher. The next morning, when she asked her mother when they were going to school, her mother had to tell her there was “no school, no nothing, anymore.” Instead, the family would retreat to the basement shelter in their house.

Over the following hours and days, Mariia worried about where the next bomb might fall, and about what had happened to her future.

“I was scared for my life—like, what if a bomb is going to drop on my house?” she says. “But I was also scared for my future, because I understood there wouldn’t be one in Ukraine after the war.”

Even before the war, I wanted to go to America to college. That was my initial goal.

Fast forward four years, and Vainshtein, now 17, has found that future. As of this spring, she was closing in on her goal of attending college in the States. And tennis has played an important role in getting here there.

The sport wasn’t new to Mariia. As a child, she had trouble focusing her eyes, so a doctor recommended that she try tennis, so she could track and follow the ball. In the U.S., where she was inundated with new experiences and didn’t speak the language, the court would become a refuge.

“It was very lonely here at first,” she says of her early weeks in the U.S. “I was just hanging out with my mom and my aunt and their friends.”

At first, school wasn’t much better. Nervous about speaking English in class, she asked her teachers not to call on her. Fortunately, one of those teachers refused.

“I asked them if I can only submit assignments, and not speak, not participate at all, and most of them said yes,” Mariia says. “But one lady said no, I had to present in class and participate, and I was pushed. It turned out I wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

From there, her English improved rapidly. Still, her fellow middle-school students were, perhaps not surprisingly, less than sympathetic to the new girl’s plight.

“One person told me that I have to learn English, and in order for me to do that I have to go back to Ukraine, and then come back here once I know it,” she says. “I said, ‘That’s crazy. I can’t go back to Ukraine. There’s a war on.’”

Rather than going to Ukraine, she went to the Bronx.

That’s where the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis and Learning is located, and where Mariia has spent many afternoons over the past four years. In 2022, the 22-court facility began hosting the Scholar Athlete Program, an initiative started by New York Junior Tennis and Learning (NYJTL) that provides free tennis and academic instruction to young people based on their commitment, grades and financial situation. As of 2026, the program has roughly 100 enrollees, including Mariia.

Cary Leeds was an eye-opener for Vainshtein, who had been playing at a Brooklyn club with a largely Russian-speaking clientele.

“This place is a lot better in terms of communication and development not only as a player, but as a person,” she says. “A lot more people speak English, so I started talking to everyone.”

Along with tennis clinics, the Scholar Athlete Program offers academic support, life-skills classes, career planning, and access to sports psychologists.

On Sundays, we sit and listen about a certain skill, like how to stay mentally in the game, how to stay calm, stay focused.

What Vainshtein likes most about tennis, though, is hitting the ball hard, with her Western forehand and two-handed backhand. While she has met fellow Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, she sees a lot of her game, and herself, in Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

“I think she’s funny, and she hits so fast,” Mariia says of the WTA’s No. 1 player. “There’s a lot of videos of her crashing out on court, yelling at people. I do that too, but I don’t yell at other people. I yell at myself mostly.”

Vainshtein credits Cary Leeds’ instructors with putting more purpose behind her pummeling.

“Before I just used to hit the ball, and that’s it,” she says. “No mental game behind it. Now I’m thinking about it more than I used to.”

Mariia’s coach, Rob Cizek, who is also NYJTL’s Associate Director of High Performance, agrees with her self-assessment.

“She’s a pretty stubborn player,” Cizek says. “She likes to take the ball early. When I met her, she didn’t put much thought into who she’s playing and how to make them uncomfortable. Now she’s developing other strokes, adding variety, adding some slice and spin to her second serve.”

Vainshtein’s improvement has shown up in her results. A senior at James Madison High School, she led the girls’ tennis team to its first Public School Athletic League title in 46 years. She hopes to continue playing in college next year. Skidmore and Amherst are among her top choices.

Just as important, Mariia hopes to keep studying and putting her new English skills to work. Along with her school’s tennis team, she was also on a team that finished second in New York State’s “We the People” competition, where students are tested on their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution. For Vainshtein, learning about her adopted country’s past comes easily.

“I’m really good with American history because everything is so connected and so straightforward,” she says. “It’s never changed. There’s just one constitution the whole time.”

For Mariia’s mother, Anzhelika, the U.S. was first and foremost about safety. It was a place where she and her family could survive. Cary Leeds has helped make it a place where her daughter can thrive as well.

“I see how her thoughts change,” she says of Mariia during her time in the Scholar Athlete Program. “They help kids to believe in themselves and grow, not only athletically, but as confident people and strong people, thinking about their future.”