UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State alumnus George Woskob, and his wife, Nina, are continuing their family’s philanthropic investment in the College of Agricultural Sciences with a new $1 million commitment to the Woskob New Century Fund.
Since its creation, the Woskob Ukraine New Century Fund has supported the exchange of faculty and students, seminars and academic meetings, cultural programs, collaborative education, and research and extension initiatives — all with the goal of promoting partnerships, building institutions and strengthening networks that support Ukraine’s agricultural sector. This most recent gift further strengthens a connection the Woskob family has long championed.
For more than three decades, the Woskob family has been a driving force behind the college’s partnership with Ukrainian universities. That legacy began in 1992 when Alex and Helen Woskob, who, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, made their initial gift to the college and began years of strategic programming, including the establishment of the Woskob New Century Fund in 2006.
“We are genuinely honored that George and Nina Woskob have chosen this critical time to increase their commitment to the college’s work with Ukraine,” said Deanna Behring, assistant dean and director for Ag Sciences Global. “Alex and Helen knew that agriculture is the foundation of democracy and the development of open markets. As entrepreneurs and community leaders themselves, George and Nina carry these ideas forward and evolve them to meet the changing needs of the modern world.”
For George and Nina Woskob, ensuring the continuity of this work is both a family legacy and a shared mission to help strengthen Ukraine’s future through education and agricultural innovation. Ukraine residents Vlad Konovalchuk, and his business partner and spouse, Lina Dotsenko, will help guide the next phase of this partnership and its programming. A Penn State alumnus, Konovalchuk earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Dotsenko came to Penn State via a U.S. Department of Agriculture faculty exchange program.
“Progress is being made under the guidance of Vlad and Lina,” said George Woskob, who is a 1976 graduate of Penn State. “They live and work in Kyiv and know what Ukraine needs from us in the near and long-term future. Ukraine is still functioning and we need to continue to help them do growth-oriented things now. This work cannot simply pause until the war ends.”
A vital partnership
The Woskobs’ longstanding commitment has played a central role in keeping Penn State’s connections with Ukraine strong, said Behring.
According to George, the continuous investment of time and funding by the Woskob family has been made to nurture the concept and development of private farmland in the minds of Ukrainian farmers — an idea that was a sharp contrast to Ukraine’s 60-year history of inefficient and low-yielding, Soviet collectivized farming.
George and Nina often traveled to and from Ukraine with faculty members from the College of Agricultural Sciences, including then deans Bob Steele and Rick Roush, who recognized the importance of agricultural scientists’ role in helping to advance Ukraine’s agriculture.
One program that exemplifies this impact is the Woskob International Research in Agriculture program, also known as WIRA.
“Over the past 15 years, we have brought more than 30 young faculty from Ukraine to Penn State to study side-by-side with our faculty here in the college. That network of former WIRA scholars is important to us and represents our heart on the ground in Ukraine,” George said. “Adding to that number are the scholars that were brought through the Foreign Exchange Program at the start of this Woskob initiative and recent scholars who arrived during the war to have the ability to continue their research. The total number exceeds 100 scholars. Most of them were here to learn a curriculum established by Penn State faculty to take back to their universities where they teach their newly acquired knowledge to students from all over Ukraine.”
Looking ahead
According to Behring, the focus for the New Century Fund and its programs will be on communication, strategic growth and continued responsiveness to Ukraine’s evolving needs.
“We are already working on the ‘RECOVERy’ plan,” Behring explained. The RECOVERy plan will focus on:
- Regenerative recovery for soil and sustainable farming
- Empowering veterans through agribusiness
- Collaborative international efforts
- Optimizing water use with modern irrigation
- Veteran agro-hubs for training and support
- Education and mentoring for sustainable practices
- Resilient agricultural and water systems to ensure future food security
A family legacy continued
As the college advances these initiatives with Konovalchuk and Dotsenko’s leadership, the Woskobs remain grounded in the legacy that began with George’s parents more than 30 years ago. Natives of Ukraine, Alex and Helen and members of their families fled the country during WWII with stops in Germany, Canada and eventually Philadelphia. The couple settled in State College in the 1960s where they raised George and his siblings while building their real-estate business, AW&Sons. The couple loved their adopted country and the State College community, but always maintained a deep love for their native Ukraine, George said.
“My father had the foresight to arrange that the support that he and Helen provided would only be used for the benefit of Ukraine and not for other countries,” George said. “I didn’t know what my father knew then about what the future could hold for Ukraine’s struggle. I get it now and we’re working hard to keep their efforts going.”
“Helen and Alex devoted their lives after they retired to philanthropy,” Nina added. “We’re proud to continue what they started.”
The Woskob family’s philanthropic support extends across Penn State. In addition to the New Century Fund, the family established the Woskob Family Professorship in Ukrainian Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts and funded the Woskob Family Art Gallery in downtown State College.
Gifts like the Woskobs’ advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.