I have always loved spending time with kids, so I decided to work as a volunteer last summer at “Peace Camp.” Peace Camp is a day camp that helps youth (ages 5-14) connect with themselves, others, and the world around them. Through sharing, art, cooperative games, stories, a Peace Museum, and nature, they teach tools to help regulate emotions and prevent and address conflicts. I worked with the younger group of kids 5 to 6 six years old for two weeks. I read books to them, taught them about peacemakers, and spoke about how to treat people politely. We went outside with kids to teach them how to play different games in teams. Also, we went to peace museum to learn how different people shared peace with the world or how sharing peace can change environment around you. Working with these kids gave me positive energy every day. Every morning I was looking forward a new workday! The hardest part of this experience was that some kids were from broken families. One girl, Kimberly, whose parents were going through a divorce, would run away from me or start hitting me if I did not let her do what she wanted to do. Sometimes she even would shut herself in the bathroom if she was upset or mad at me. But I did not give up. I explained to her that she cannot do that anymore. Sometimes I would stay with her in the room to color or to read book while others went outside. The next day her behavior would get better and better; but after the weekend she would always come back irritated or even worse, she would have lost some of the progress we had made. Time passed so quickly. In the second week of working with her, she told me “You make me feel better. I want you to play with me every day. Can we be friends forever?” and she hugged me. It was the first hug she ever gave me, and it felt wonderful. I felt so proud and powerful. After that her behavior changed for the better. The environment and mood in the class became more positive and beneficial for everyone because I and the other counselors could spend more time with all of the kids and not have to focus on just one child. At the end of each day, we had a staff meeting where we talked about what our day was like. After I told everyone what Kimberly had done, our director said that I had done a good job taking care of her and that she would speak with her parents to continue working with her on her behavior. This experience taught me that there are no bad kids, just adults that are not good role models. I learned how different kids are at that young age. Their differences come out in every way possible, in how they learn and study, how they enjoy different games and how they express their emotions. I learned how to control my emotions better and how to express them in front of the kids because most of the time these kids look at you as an example of how to behave. If you react badly and show anger, they will just give you back all of this negative energy.

In August 2011, I was 6 years old, and it was my first time on an airplane, and the first time visiting my great grandparents in Kyrgyzstan. When you are a child everything longer than 20 minutes seems to last forever, so to help pass the time my Mom bought me some coloring pencils and a notebook to draw in. Since this was the first time I would meet my great grandparents, I drew several different houses trying to guess what theirs might look like. When I finally met them, the first thing I did was show them my paintings. My grandpa smiled looking through my drawings and said, “That's awesome! Do you want to have a job that relates to art?” I grew up in a typical neighborhood in Ukraine where every gray building looks the same. I spent all my early years alone or in different after-school classes because my parents worked hard to give me a better childhood than the one they had. Art has always helped me express myself by giving me a chance to forget about the gray world around me. I started attending my first art classes when I was just 3 years old. At that age I could finish drawing a forty-four page album in just three days, so my parents signed me up for art school. It was hard to compete with others because they were much older than me, but I did not give up and I submitted all of my artwork to different competitions. I loved to add a pop of color to each work which resulted in winning “the most creative” prize. Painting helped me escape the sad reality of my surroundings. I always got excited when I had a chance to visit my grandmother who lived in Kharkiv which I associate with sunny and warm childhood memories. This city and its beautiful buildings brought out my love of architecture. My favorite part was how old and new styles of buildings looked good together and complemented each other. Every year coming back to visit, I discover new architectural styles or concepts walking around the city. But it doesn’t look like that anymore. Everything changed on February 24, 2022 when Russia attacked Ukraine. Kharkiv, located thirty kilometers from the border with Russia, was a home of more than one and a half million people. That city almost doesn’t exist anymore. Bombs destroyed the entire downtown where I loved to hang out with my cousins. One projectile dropped near my grandmother’s house causing severe damage to what I have always considered my second home – the only place where I could feel safe. After living in the same apartment for 16 years, moving to the U.S. wasn't easy. Everything was so different for me: people, traditions, and school. I still remember how scary it was to go to my American high school. However, I quickly got used to it. I chose classes that complimented my love of math and art, like Precalculus and Art II. I have always loved numbers, especially when I went to school in the Ukraine where I had eight math classes per week, taking both Algebra and Geometry in the same year. Architecture is the best fit for me because it is a perfect combination of my love of art, design, and math. Considering what is going on in my home country, once the war is over, reconstruction will be needed. A degree and career in architecture will not only help my future, but also allow me to return to Ukraine to help rebuild the country.