Tetyana Simchuk showed up for the last day of her U.S. State Department fellowship at Honolulu Hale with an outfit that married her Ukrainian upbringing with her time working — and learning — in Hawaii.

Her flowered Ukrainian headdress resembled a haku lei, while a gift of a kukui lei reminded her of a traditional, wooden Ukrainian necklace. Under an embroidered Ukrainian blouse that she brought from home, Simchuk wore a white Hawaiian print skirt.

“I decided that I can unite these two cultures,” Simchuk said. “You’ve got such a multicultural society here in Hawaii.”

Simchuk, 35, was one of eight international Professional Fellows in Hawaii under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. She started May 7 working in the state House, then spent the next three weeks in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development arranging visits for delegates, writing letters and communicating with Honolulu’s sister cities.

In addition to speaking English, which she starting learning at age 6, Simchuk also speaks Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and some German.

With her current position in the Ukrainian government as principal officer in the Department of International Cooperation and European Integration in the Rivne Regional State Administration, Simchuck wanted to see public service in action in the United States and learn best practices in government accountability.

But Simchuk’s biggest takeaway from a month in state and city government had nothing to do with how bureaucracy works.

“I think the most important thing is this aloha spirit that you have,” she said.

Simchuk thinks Ukraine, which is in its fifth year of war, could use a lot more aloha spirit. And she plans to bring some back home.

“People tend to concentrate on the bad things just because we have so many difficult situations,” she said. “But this aloha spirit may be a better way to conduct both business and public service.”

Simchuk saw the aloha spirit in action at the state Capitol where legislators sang “Hawai‘i Aloha” — and during Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Cabinet meetings where presentations were followed with applause.

“People with different views have their different audiences, but they unite and it’s great,” Simchuk said. “Unity is what we desperately need in my country.”

Ukraine, which is currently in the process of reform and decentralization, is slowly transitioning to a government with more involvement from the people. Simchuk thinks Honolulu’s neighborhood board system could help empower citizens, starting with Ukraine’s apartment complex system.

“When you don’t have straight contact (between the people and officials), it’s way harder for people to see what’s going on and feel that they have some influence on it,” she said.

Simchuk celebrated her birthday before her fellowship started. So her supervisor in the city, Firmo Dayao, the international affairs specialist at the Office of Economic Development, took her shopping in Chinatown and exposed her to fruits such as mango.

Simchuk helped Firmo draft the mayor’s responses to letters from all over the world, shadowed him at neighborhood board meetings and accompanied him to facilities such as the HPOWER plant.

Simchuk also got a taste of Honolulu’s multicultural makeup when she lived with two different host families — one in a gated community in Manoa and the other in Kalihi.

Though not directly affected by Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Simchuck has family living about 60 miles away from the territory actively involved in war.

“It was hard because it’s still your family,” she said.