By Ben Hall
It’s been awhile since the girls of Team MOBI have been home. The members of the under-16 basketball team from Ukraine have been refugees in Latvia for well over a year—separated from home and family ever since the war with Russia started. Their coaches are now their legal guardians, and while some will go on to play for the Ukrainian national team, for others the future remains uncertain.
With the help of Sawyer Business School Professors Lauren Hajjar and Skip Perham, Team MOBI visited Suffolk in June as part of a three-week trip to the United States sponsored by the Ukrainian American Youth Association. The day included a campus tour, greetings from President Marisa Kelly and Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll—herself a college basketball player who ran drills with the team—and a scrimmage at the Smith Fitness Center organized by the Suffolk basketball coaching staff.
“With Suffolk’s experience in public, private, and social sectors, as well as our international student population, it made it easy for us to do something special for this team,” Hajjar says. This fall, several of the team members are living with Massachusetts host families, she adds. “The goal is to keep them safe and offer them opportunities to continue their studies and do what they love most: play basketball.”
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Professor Lauren Hajjar helped arrange the Ukrainian girls basketball Team MOBI’s visit to Suffolk, where they ran drills in the Smith Fitness Center with Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll (back row, second from right). Photograph by Ben Hall
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Professor Lauren Hajjar Photograph: Michael J. Clarke
