Hashko has grown accustomed to systems and processes requiring longevity so much that it might be built into his persona. “It's a two-year school, but I went to Ivy Tech for five years. So I was a full-time student,” Hashko said. Hashko, from the Eastern European country Belarus, grew up during the Soviet Union. Following its collapse, he traveled to the United States as a foreign exchange student in 1998, settling in with a host family in Whiteland, IN. After moving back to Belarus in 1999, he would return in the summers. Then, in 2003, he permanently moved to the U.S. and settled in Indianapolis, where he began his higher education journey at Ivy Tech. Hashko wasn’t sure what he wanted to study. The international student advisor at the time suggested visual communications, and he said, “Sure.” One of the first classes Hashko took was Introduction to Video, instructed by John Perez, who is now Ivy Tech’s Program Chair of Visual Communications. “I took that class ... and I was reminded of my childhood dream,” Hashko said. “A dream that I had to become a filmmaker.” “I remember I was watching the Oscars ceremonies as a kid,” Hashko started saying, reminiscing. “Occasionally, things like the Oscars, they would show them, and I would be looking at those worlds and thinking, ‘wow, this is cool. I would like to be a part of it.’ But, you know, as I grew up, got a little bit older, the dream was quickly forgotten. Because over there, people don’t tell you
“ I vy T ech gi v e s y o u a fo u nda t ion if y o u s eek i t .”
that you can be anything you want. It’s only when you come to America they start to tell you, ‘oh, you can be whatever you want.’” Hashko said that as long as he was in school, he could stay in the U.S. legally with a student visa. He didn’t skate by, by any means, and over the course of five years, he maintained 12- credit hour semesters, enrolled in a wide variety of courses, learned how to draw, and graduated with two degrees. Both of his associate degrees from Ivy Tech were in visual communications, one for graphic design and the other for web design. “Ivy Tech gives you a foundation if you seek it,” Hashko said. “I came into this world of visual communications and design and didn’t have any background in that. So for me, somebody needed to explain the very basics.”
12 | Ivy Indy
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