Oleksii Porokh, with his wife Anna, a fellow student, shows off his metalwork.

Oleksii Porokh arrived in New York from Ukraine six months ago, speaking very little English. He enrolled at Riverside Language Program and studied with Doris Athineos’ Level 1 class. “Every day at Riverside we learn something new and talk-talk-talk and then I go home and watch American cartoons with my son,” says Oleksii.

Today, Oleksii works as a skilled metalsmith at the only metal foundry in the United States that still makes architectural hardware by hand. After learning about his background, teacher Doris Athineos connected Oleksii to the 162-year-old architectural hardware firm P.E. Guerin, whose customers include Gracie Mansion and the White House.

Oleksii studied at the prestigious Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where he concentrated in art and jewelry casting. “It was a very big surprise for me to find a foundry in the middle of New York City,” says the artisan, “I sent my aunt a photo of the foundry and she started crying. Metalsmithing is in our blood.”