Auburn College of Education alumna and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer taught in Ukraine amid ongoing war

In a city where air raid sirens pierced the night and missile strikes shattered the quiet, Amanda Denney stood at the front of a classroom — offering students not just lessons in literature, but a lifeline of normalcy. As war raged around Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Denney — an Auburn University College of Education alumna and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer — helped lead a school community determined to persevere.

Through sleepless nights, underground shelters and the constant hum of missile defense systems, education never stopped. And at the heart of it was Denney, guiding her students with resilience, compassion and unwavering purpose.

“I absolutely loved my time,” said Denney about her past few years as a teacher at Kyiv International School, where she taught secondary literacy and IB Literature and Language. “Our school is unique in how tight-knit it is; this was true before the war and is doubly so now. Students and parents are collaborators, and student input is valued and solicited often. As a professional, I was encouraged to innovate and valued for my professional opinion and skill.”

Denney’s path to Ukraine was anything but conventional. Raised in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, she grew up steeped in Auburn pride — her mother and uncle are both Auburn graduates, and Saturdays were often spent cheering on the Tigers. Originally drawn to Auburn to study veterinary medicine, Denney soon discovered that education was a better fit for her passions and strengths.

“I found myself more inspired by the idea of helping students grow and thrive than anything else,” she said. “Education gave me a way to connect globally and make a meaningful impact.”

After earning her degree, Denney joined the Peace Corps, teaching in Burkina Faso and later Nicaragua. Though her official Peace Corps service ended in 2014, the experience shaped her worldview and ignited a desire to continue her education journey with an international focus.

In 2018, after completing her M.Ed., Denney accepted a teaching position with Quality Schools International in Dongguan, China. She spent three years there — including two during the COVID-19 pandemic — before requesting a transfer to a new location. Kyiv International School was offered, and she moved to Ukraine in June 2021, doing so as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

“I moved there in June 2021 and enjoyed about seven months of peace in the capital (then, the war was going on, but rarely felt in Kyiv) before the full-scale invasion,” she said. “We were warned about an imminent invasion about 10 days beforehand, so most of the overseas staff left, thinking we would likely return in a week or two. I went to Georgia (the country, not the state), then later Albania. I returned to Kyiv in August of 2023 and taught two school years, leaving in June 2025.”

Under a blanket of smoke

Returning to a city under siege, Denney found herself teaching amid nightly air raids, rolling blackouts and the constant threat of destruction. 

“The past year has definitely seen an uptick in Russian aggression,” she said. “The reality of this would be nightly attacks — usually the air raid siren would go off around 11 p.m.–1 a.m. Then, air defense could be heard working to repel the first round of drones coming into the city. This would last for hours and may or may not be punctuated by louder explosions of missile defense working. These attacks would typically end around dawn, and under a blanket of smoke, we would just...go to school.”

Despite the trauma, Denney and her school community remained fiercely committed to education. She said students and teachers were often awakened in the night and would come to school with little to no sleep. 

“Many would spend the night in underground metro stations or sleeping in interior bathrooms and hallways. Rolling blackouts due to damage to infrastructure were a problem, and many of the families at our school had — at one time or another — experienced separation due to displacement from the war. Despite all these things and the obvious challenges they present to doing school, everyone was committed to providing as normal a school experience as possible.”

Even with infrastructure damage and family separations due to martial law, the school pressed forward. 

“While we had to spend some days teaching from our basement, mostly school looked pretty normal,” Denney said. “We kept as rigorous an environment as we could, considering everyone was sleep-deprived and traumatized.”

One moment stands out vividly: “The most memorable [attack] being a 400kg ballistic missile that hit an office building about 250 meters from my apartment the week of Christmas.”

Extraordinary resilience

Despite such chaos, the school held sports tournaments and exchanges with other schools as well as two theatre productions. It also hosted events after school for the community, including film screenings and game nights. Through it all, Denney witnessed the extraordinary resilience of her students and colleagues. 

“Our school community is committed to investing in the future, meaning we're committed to our kids,” she said. “We want to be sure they are prepared for eventual peace and life after the war, and so we push on as best we can, considering the circumstances.”

Her reflections on Ukraine are deeply personal, noting that “War in the 21st century doesn't look like the old pictures from previous conflicts in Europe. They depict part of the devastation, but not all of it — the sleeplessness, the anxiety, the inability to plan ahead with confidence.”

Denney hopes others will see Ukrainians not as distant figures in a conflict, but as people with hopes and dreams just like anyone else. She said they want to live peacefully, having their children grow up happy, successful and fulfilled. 

“They are committed to liberation and a fair democratic country; their bravery and strength should be inspirational to anyone who values these things,” she said. “They are a reminder of what is possible and the very best of human resilience.”

A perspective of gratitude

Now back in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Denney teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) at a local high school, is pursuing a doctorate in Literacy Studies and is working in a research lab as a graduate assistant. She said her time in Ukraine — and the Auburn education that helped prepare her for it — continues to shape her perspective.

“I’m very grateful to my time in the ESOL program, especially, as it helped prepare me for both roles — as an instructor and a researcher,” she said. “I love that the College of Education has an incredible collection of experts and professionals from all fields of education study. I feel really lucky to have had their mentorship and expertise from my time there.”

Denney said she hopes her experience speaks to the next generation of educators, encouraging them to see the need for education not just in the United States but also abroad. 

“I would tell them to take advantage of the programs on campus and the knowledge of the professors,” she said of what she would tell students considering Auburn’s College of Education. “When I was a Peace Corps recruiter on campus in 2016-2018, I worked with Auburn Abroad to send students on a week-long trip to Nicaragua to learn more about international service and travel. There are several innovative and brilliant professors conducting interesting research on campus, and it's exciting to be able to learn from their expertise and example.” 

And whether in Kyiv, Tennessee or Auburn, she said one thing never changes.

“The pride and the sense of belonging that comes from being an Auburn Tiger is something that stays with you, no matter how far you travel. You will always be a part of it!”