Born in Vinnytsya, I lived most of my life in Starokostiantyniv, Ukraine. This is a relatively small city in the West of Ukraine with one of Ukraine's biggest military air bases. My dad was delegated to work there when I was very small, which is how my parents moved there with me. My father was a major organizing and supervising planned combat flights. In 2015, a year into the war russia unfolded in Ukraine, he went to the East of Ukraine, Kramatorsk. There he was in charge of the flights on the battlefield. 6 months in, he was injured and returned home with a disability. He continued working at Starokostiantyniv air base for another 5 years. Then he retired and left with my mom and my 7-year-old brother for Poland, trying to ensure at least they were in a safer spot even though they both are still struggling to find a stable job there. To sum up, my dad was affected by war the most. That, of course, affected the rest of the family too. Besides living in constant stress and fearing war in my home country, my mom had to take care of my dad and children when he returned from the East. After he returned, my brother and I never saw the dad we knew before and learned about trauma when least expected. Finally, we all lost the home we loved and created with so much effort. Around a year before my parents left Ukraine, when I was 17, I went to the US to study at Minerva University based in San Francisco, CA. But this wasn't my first trip to the US. When 15, I went there for a FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange Program.) The program coordinators recognized my leadership skills back then, and I could not be more grateful to them for allowing me to participate in FLEX. This experience opened my worldview, let me meet so many fun, intelligent people, and taught me the importance of being exposed to many cultures to be more aware of and improve your own. After FLEX, Minerva was the perfect next episode. Traveling and living in 7 different countries throughout 4 years of my Bachelor's, my classmates and I have a unique opportunity to foster deep connections worldwide, widen our worldviews, and learn always to think critically. I picked Data Science and Software Engineering as my major because it perfectly combines my professional and personal aspirations. Just being a female Data Scientist feels empowering and I want it to become the norm soon. Also, I love maths and problem-solving, which I can constantly tackle as an engineer. This is the field where I can challenge myself more and more while producing something truly helpful to others. For example, some friends and I developed a recruitment platform called Taita that helps HRs reduce bias in their decisions and streamline their interviews. It is very cool to see something you've created improve someone's daily life. Moreover, this is the field where I can bring my leadership skills and empathy uniquely. People sometimes perceive IT as an 'emotionless' field, which I also found partially true. I try to make sure everyone is supported, heard, and has fun while completing the tasks needed from inside the team. And I get a super heart-warming feeling when I see success in this. For example, as the team working on that recruitment platform, we had very healthy habits of talking through all our concerns directly and immediately as well as spending quality time together outside of work. This makes the team both more efficient and joyful.