McCain Institute Junior Fellow
Stepan Onyshchuk is a rising junior at Washington and Lee University and a Junior Fellow at the McCain Institute. He majors in American Politics and Eastern European Studies. Born in a small mountainous town in Ukraine, he served as the town’s youth mayor before interning in the Ukrainian Parliament, where he drafted speeches and ran digital outreach for a Member of Parliament.
At W&L, Stepan represented his class in the Student Government and, in 2025, received the Senator John Warner Public Service Award, the university’s highest honor for current Politics majors. He was also awarded a Shelby Davis Scholarship covering the full cost of his higher education. Last summer, he conducted political research for ZN.UA, Ukraine’s largest newspaper.
Passionate about dialogue and civil discourse, Stepan has interviewed Ukraine’s former Prime Minister, Defense and Interior Ministers, Prosecutor General, the Speaker of Parliament, and retired U.S., European, and Ukrainian ambassadors.
As a proud first-generation American immigrant and a war refugee, Stepan wants to fulfil his American dream by building a legal career in public service and foreign affairs.
