Every Wednesday when you hear a heavy accent in the hallways of Niles West, you can typically find Tatyana Gulak recycling with a team of students.

“I volunteered to be the primary sponsor of the ‘Go Green’ Club. I saw that the job wasn’t done properly.” Mrs. Gulak said.

Mrs. Gulak has been the sponsor of the “Go Green” Club since 2006, but she’s worked in Niles West since 2000. She plans to retire in two years.

“I like Mrs. T  a lot. She always helped me with my homework, and besides that, she gave me advice and life lessons. I started recycling with her since during my freshman year,” said the president of “Go Green” Club and senior Arbela Dadesho.

Mrs. Gulak is an immigrant from the Soviet Union who came here due to political fights. Her husband was against the ideals of the government. They had to make a choice to leave, or Mr. Gulak would end up in jail.

“I came to United States of America on Sept. 19, 1987. I came here with my three children and my husband. If I knew that Gorbachev would change Soviet Union into something better, we wouldn’t have left,” she said with regret visibly on her face.

Mrs. Gulak was a math teacher in Soviet Union. She taught students who were in first grade, and she would mathematically raise them, all the way until the end of their senior year. Currently, she is a math tutor in the ESL Department.

“My children were involved in Niles West theatre and choir. Anytime I came to school to see them, I always helped them and other students however I could. At that time, a lot of Russian foreigners were in this school. I remember Mrs. Philbin asked me if I want to be a tutor. I knew I wouldn’t be able to teach because of the language barrier and heavy accent, so I became a tutor in the ESL Department.”

“Mrs. T. was my guide and the one who helped me the most with math. Although there was a language barrier, she always made me understand things I didn’t understand in class. With the only words she knew, she always explained everything to me better than my teachers did,” senior Mernah Polus said.