Ukrainian Women in STEM

I am now 17 years old and lately, my life has been full of unexpected unpredictable events. Until 2022, everything in my life was stable and quite planned out. I spent the first 9 years of my life in a school with a profound study of foreign languages. Every year I participated and won prizes in competitions at various stages (school, city, regional, all-Ukrainian) in various subjects (Ukrainian language and literature, English, biology, geography, chemistry, ecology). For 7.5 years I went to the School of Arts, where I had regular training in ballroom dancing, also had lessons in solfeggio and piano. Then I got interested in biological sciences. That is why I passed the entrance examinations and entered the 10 class of Chernihiv Regional Scientific Lyceum on biology&chemistry profile. Being deeply interested in biology and chemistry, with the help of the professor I defended my first research work in the field of ecology for the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (JAS) and won a prize at the all-Ukrainian level. Then, one day, my life was divided into "before" and "after." In February 2022, my family and I decided to celebrate my birthday in Cyprus. We packed for a week of carefree vacations and flew backpacking. Who knew that we would have to stay there much longer than planned because of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Thus, my migrant story began. Together with my younger sister, we studied at schools in Cyprus. At the same time I continued my studies in the Ukrainian lyceum. I had to adapt to a new country with a different culture and language. At that time I also started to learn Greek. It was a period of total uncertainty. Before that, I had never had to deal with so many "adult" problems. By the way, it was there that I had to go to work for the first time. I also began to create a second research project in botanical comparisons and observations. In February 2023 we arrived in Michigan. The culture shock, the 8-hour time difference with Ukraine, the language barrier, the different laws and rules of life - all this and much, much more came upon us when we came. That time I had to combine my senior year at a Ukrainian school with my senior year at an American school. Combo! For a very long time, I just couldn't adjust to the new time zone. I ended up graduating from two schools at the same time: Chernihiv Regional Scientific Lyceum and Forest Park High School. I got a gold medal for 11 years of diligent study and a diploma with honors (GPA of 4.0) from the Lyceum and a 3.9 from Forest Park High School. Because of the difficulty in finding employment in Michigan, our family moved again, this time to Florida. Telling it is many times easier than actually living it. I can say with certainty that in this year and a half, which for me is already an eternity, it is as if I have matured a lot more. Nevertheless, it's hard not to say that it's a priceless experience that only helps me move forward. For several years now, every year I've grown stronger and stronger in my desire to help people. Events in the world prove to us that nothing is more important in life than health. Without it, no achievement or material accomplishment means anything. That's why I want to keep learning so that I can do what I want to do, which is to help people.

My name is Maiia Veremchuk. I am a daughter in a family with 9 children right now. My parents are people who discipline and care about us, therefore we have our family music band and each of us has a field of interest. My own are education, science, gospel and music. When the time came to choose the profession first I thought I would be a music teacher, but God turn my life in such a way, that I become a math teacher and I have no regret about it. 2019 is the year of graduation from my high school. I studied in Dubno lyceum #1, in class with a focus on mathematics and physics. We had 9 math in a week and 6 physics. I took 1 place in physics in my town and was 4th in the region. Therefore received mail from Tarasa Schevchenka about enrollment. While the physics faculty had no program with teacher preparation, I chose math education. My years at Trasa Shevchenko University were unique by the enhancement of my mathematical knowledge and my growth in all, as a person. I was one of the best students in the group, because give all my efforts and time to studying. In the middle of my 3rd year, while I took practice in the Schevchenko lyceum, the war started. It was the throated moment I ever had. I remember the morning 24th when the rocket e