Brave Generation

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Empower a generation,
rebuild a nation

Putin’s war is more than a war of territory. It is an attempt to destroy Ukraine’s future generation. While the Ukrainian army confronts Russian troops on the battlefield, it will take a brave generation of young leaders to reconstruct Ukraine as a liberal democracy on the doorstep of Russian autocracy. We are that Brave Generation.

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Become a mentor

Empower a generation, rebuild a nation

Putin’s war is more than a war of territory. It is an attempt to destroy Ukraine’s future generation. While the Ukrainian army confronts Russian troops on the battlefield, it will take a brave generation of young leaders to reconstruct Ukraine as a liberal democracy on the doorstep of Russian autocracy. We are that Brave Generation.

Donate
Become a mentor

Our goal - #HelpToUkraine Our goal

We are a registered non-profit organization based in NYC, devoted to empowering young Ukrainians by providing them with the essential tools and connections they need to contribute to Ukraine's post-war reconstruction.

Our Work

To ensure Ukraine’s future, we need to start supporting Ukraine’s youth now. That’s why we provide multi-dimensional, comprehensive support to Ukrainian students displaced by the war who are looking to continue their education abroad. We’re closing the gaps that otherwise prevent displaced Ukrainians from unlocking their full potential. Building a strong community committed to the future of Ukraine, we aim to equip the nation’s next generation with the tools they need to rebuild. We do this through our three programs:

MentorUkraine

by Brave Generation

Our global network of Mentors - alumni, and students from top US universities - serve as a steadfast community. They aid our mentees, Ukrainian students applying to international institutions by helping them navigate the university application process and providing support.

Learn more

TeachUkraine

by Brave Generation

We help our Mentees overcome financial barriers to education, including standardized English exam fees and airfare to the universities they are enrolled in. We also subsidize English language tutoring and help Mentees build the skills they need to succeed in higher education.

Learn more

HealUkraine

by Brave Generation

The trauma of war can have a chilling effect on survivors’ motivation to move forward. We connect our Mentees to a network of professional mental health care services, helping them cope with uncertainty and foster resiliency as they focus on rebuilding their lives.

Learn more

Our impact so far

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member network of Ukrainian students

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students matched with Mentor

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Mentees accepted to universities abroad

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Mentees granted full scholarships

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Mentees accepted as Fulbright scholar

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million in scholarships awarded to Mentees

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Mentees accepted to Erasmus+ program

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Mentees accepted to US summer schools

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member network of Ukrainian students

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students matched with Mentors

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Mentees accepted to universities abroad

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Mentees awarded full scholarships

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Mentees named Fulbright Scholars

$

million in scholarships awarded to Mentees

Mentees accepted to Erasmus+ program

Mentees accepted to US summer programs

Our Mission:
Empower young Ukrainians today, so they can lead tomorrow

Our Mission:
Empower young Ukrainians today, so they can lead tomorrow

Our Mission:
Empower young Ukrainians today, so they can lead tomorrow

Every day, the Ukrainian people make immense sacrifices, shedding their blood in the pursuit of freedom and the preservation of their democratic ideals. Young people are being killed every day both on the frontlines and in city centers; those who survive are being robbed of their homes, their education, their childhood and adolescence, and so much more. In the occupied territories, young people are being forcibly and systematically relocated to Russia. Ukraine’s military has proven extremely adept at stemming Russian advances and reclaiming Ukrainian territory. Exhausted by a yearslong war, the older generation of political leadership will turn to the next generation to rebuild Ukraine – the very generation Putin seeks to destroy. That’s where Brave Generation comes in. Brave Generation is uniting Ukraine’s most talented and ambitious students who are committed to their country’s future. Educated across the globe at the world’s best institutions, supported by a large network of personal mentors and friends of Ukraine, Brave Generation’s students will return to Ukraine connected, inspired, and determined to lead.

Our team

Reed Cohen

Reed Cohen

Co-Founder, Vice President

Reed Cohen is a Master of Public Administration candidate at Columbia SIPA. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and English from Tufts University. He spent his early career as a marketing and branding strategy consultant at a small, boutique firm in New York. As a consultant, Reed worked on an array of projects from developing product marketing strategies and strategic narratives for clients’ brands to leveraging concepts in consumer psychology to perform brand analyses in trademark infringement lawsuits. Reed decided to pursue an MPA to help him transition from the private to the public sector and chose to attend SIPA specifically to study international security policy in response to Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.

While studying the tools and practices of war termination, he sought more immediate opportunities to begin helping Ukraine and ultimately volunteered to become a Mentor with MentorUkraine. As he continued to follow the war and hear from survivors about the brutality of the Russian army firsthand, he became determined to do more for Ukraine. After meeting Tanya and learning about the depth and breadth of the incredible work she had been doing for her nation through MentorUkraine and beyond, Reed was inspired to leverage his previous work experience and help launch Brave Generation, where he now serves as Vice President.

Co-Founder, Vice President

Tanya Kotelnykova

Tanya Kotelnykova

Co-Founder, President

Tanya Kotelnykova is the President and Executive Director of Brave Generation. Her lived experience through two wars, the Donbas occupation in 2014, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, motivates her to aid youth suffering the ongoing consequences of full scale invasion. Tanya is a student in Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at Yale University. She holds an M.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University and received her B.A. in Law at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Tanya’s main area of research is Russian academic propaganda in the occupied Ukrainian territory since 2014, the right to self-determination, and secession in the 21st century.
Tanya was born and raised in a small industrial city – Horlivka – in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. In 2014, she fled her hometown after the occupation by Russian-backed separatists began. Eight years later, the full-scale invasion forced her to flee Ukraine. As a recipient of Columbia’s Scholarship for Displaced Students, Tanya went from hiding in bomb shelters in Kyiv to pursuing higher education in a safe environment. During her time at Columbia, she received various distinctions for academic excellence, an invitation to speak with Columbia University’s President, and the Davis Fellowship, among other honors. Her commitment to academia is intertwined with an acknowledgment of privilege, as many Ukrainians have been unable to safely continue their studies.
Thus, upon arrival at Columbia University in Fall 2022, Tanya founded MentorUkraine to connect her peers at Columbia with Ukrainian students to motivate and assist them with applying to U.S. universities. Mentors can now be found at over a dozen universities across the globe, and Mentees have been awarded nearly $5.1 million in scholarships as of August 2023. As the mentorship program grew, she co-founded Brave Generation to further support her peers in rebuilding their lives and continuing their education. Tanya believes Ukraine’s young people will play an integral role in post-war reconstruction and the prevention of future conflict.

Co-Founder, President

Reed Cohen

Reed Cohen

Co-Founder, Vice President

Reed Cohen is a Master of Public Administration candidate at Columbia SIPA. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and English from Tufts University. He spent his early career as a marketing and branding strategy consultant at a small, boutique firm in New York. As a consultant, Reed worked on an array of projects from developing product marketing strategies and strategic narratives for clients’ brands to leveraging concepts in consumer psychology to perform brand analyses in trademark infringement lawsuits. Reed decided to pursue an MPA to help him transition from the private to the public sector and chose to attend SIPA specifically to study international security policy in response to Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.

While studying the tools and practices of war termination, he sought more immediate opportunities to begin helping Ukraine and ultimately volunteered to become a Mentor with MentorUkraine. As he continued to follow the war and hear from survivors about the brutality of the Russian army firsthand, he became determined to do more for Ukraine. After meeting Tanya and learning about the depth and breadth of the incredible work she had been doing for her nation through MentorUkraine and beyond, Reed was inspired to leverage his previous work experience and help launch Brave Generation, where he now serves as Vice President.

Co-Founder, Vice President

Tanya Kotelnykova

President, Executive director

Co-Founder, President

Tanya Kotelnykova is the President and Executive Director of Brave Generation. Her lived experience through two wars, the Donbas occupation in 2014, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, motivates her to aid youth suffering the ongoing consequences of full scale invasion. Tanya is a student in Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at Yale University. She holds an M.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University and received her B.A. in Law at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Tanya’s main area of research is Russian academic propaganda in the occupied Ukrainian territory since 2014, the right to self-determination, and secession in the 21st century.
Tanya was born and raised in a small industrial city – Horlivka – in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. In 2014, she fled her hometown after the occupation by Russian-backed separatists began. Eight years later, the full-scale invasion forced her to flee Ukraine. As a recipient of Columbia’s Scholarship for Displaced Students, Tanya went from hiding in bomb shelters in Kyiv to pursuing higher education in a safe environment. During her time at Columbia, she received various distinctions for academic excellence, an invitation to speak with Columbia University’s President, and the Davis Fellowship, among other honors. Her commitment to academia is intertwined with an acknowledgment of privilege, as many Ukrainians have been unable to safely continue their studies.
Thus, upon arrival at Columbia University in Fall 2022, Tanya founded MentorUkraine to connect her peers at Columbia with Ukrainian students to motivate and assist them with applying to U.S. universities. Mentors can now be found at over a dozen universities across the globe, and Mentees have been awarded nearly $5.1 million in scholarships as of August 2023. As the mentorship program grew, she co-founded Brave Generation to further support her peers in rebuilding their lives and continuing their education. Tanya believes Ukraine’s young people will play an integral role in post-war reconstruction and the prevention of future conflict.

Co-Founder, President

Reed Cohen

Reed Cohen

Co-Founder, Vice President

Reed Cohen is a Master of Public Administration candidate at Columbia SIPA. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and English from Tufts University. He spent his early career as a marketing and branding strategy consultant at a small, boutique firm in New York. As a consultant, Reed worked on an array of projects from developing product marketing strategies and strategic narratives for clients’ brands to leveraging concepts in consumer psychology to perform brand analyses in trademark infringement lawsuits. Reed decided to pursue an MPA to help him transition from the private to the public sector and chose to attend SIPA specifically to study international security policy in response to Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.

While studying the tools and practices of war termination, he sought more immediate opportunities to begin helping Ukraine and ultimately volunteered to become a Mentor with MentorUkraine. As he continued to follow the war and hear from survivors about the brutality of the Russian army firsthand, he became determined to do more for Ukraine. After meeting Tanya and learning about the depth and breadth of the incredible work she had been doing for her nation through MentorUkraine and beyond, Reed was inspired to leverage his previous work experience and help launch Brave Generation, where he now serves as Vice President.

Co-Founder, Vice President

Tanya Kotelnykova

President, Executive director

Co-Founder, President

Tanya Kotelnykova is the President and Executive Director of Brave Generation. Her lived experience through two wars, the Donbas occupation in 2014, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, motivates her to aid youth suffering the ongoing consequences of full scale invasion. Tanya is a student in Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at Yale University. She holds an M.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University and received her B.A. in Law at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Tanya’s main area of research is Russian academic propaganda in the occupied Ukrainian territory since 2014, the right to self-determination, and secession in the 21st century.
Tanya was born and raised in a small industrial city – Horlivka – in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. In 2014, she fled her hometown after the occupation by Russian-backed separatists began. Eight years later, the full-scale invasion forced her to flee Ukraine. As a recipient of Columbia’s Scholarship for Displaced Students, Tanya went from hiding in bomb shelters in Kyiv to pursuing higher education in a safe environment. During her time at Columbia, she received various distinctions for academic excellence, an invitation to speak with Columbia University’s President, and the Davis Fellowship, among other honors. Her commitment to academia is intertwined with an acknowledgment of privilege, as many Ukrainians have been unable to safely continue their studies.
Thus, upon arrival at Columbia University in Fall 2022, Tanya founded MentorUkraine to connect her peers at Columbia with Ukrainian students to motivate and assist them with applying to U.S. universities. Mentors can now be found at over a dozen universities across the globe, and Mentees have been awarded nearly $5.1 million in scholarships as of August 2023. As the mentorship program grew, she co-founded Brave Generation to further support her peers in rebuilding their lives and continuing their education. Tanya believes Ukraine’s young people will play an integral role in post-war reconstruction and the prevention of future conflict.

Co-Founder, President

Meet the rest of our team