If I were to describe my academic journey in one word, I would use the word “perseverance.” Coming to the U.S. from Ukraine by myself at the age of 17, I was full of the desire to learn and adapt: nothing had excited me more than expanding my knowledge, skills, and ideas by getting a Bachelor’s degree at an American college. This life-changing academic experience has truly helped me to become who I am today. As I am entering a new stage in my life where getting a Master's degree is a next step, I am honored to say that despite all challenges I have been able to nurture relationships, make accomplishments, and truly serve my community in the recent years. To begin with, there is no doubt that my educational journey is far from conventional. Receiving education in a foreign country is a challenge in itself: new language, different mentality, and not one familiar face. On top of that, a full-scale war unfolded in my home country my freshman year of college. Not only has the war burdened me mentally, but has also affected my family in multiple ways. In the first months of the war, my parents became refugees in Poland and have lost their business to military occupation, which has created significant financial obstacles for our family. Although one may see this experience as solely tragic, I would argue that it has made me stronger than ever, inspiring me to help others through a startup I launched, all while revealing the best qualities in me and those I love. This way, throughout my four-year college career, I have been able to achieve multiple things. Starting with my academic accomplishments, I graduated from college with 3.94 GPA with a major in Business and minors in Art and Psychology. Although this achievement has required a lot of attention to my academics, I have also taken the knowledge I received throughout college to a whole new level by launching my own startup, a gamified application called “Wheat” that was designed to assist refugees affected by the forced emigration crisis. During the launch of this non-profit initiative I have won a business grant and a fellowship in the Resolution Project - a global organization that empowers young entrepreneurs. In addition, my business drive has inspired me to participate in my college’s Zingale Big Idea Competition, where I pitched three start-up ideas over three consecutive years, each of them winning a top-rank prize. Moreover, while attending college I have also prioritized my future by securing various professional opportunities both to support myself financially and gain a better understanding of how I can contribute to society through my work. During college I have completed three internships in three different countries. My sophomore year I spent the summer working in Dortmund, Germany at a political institute of Auslandsgesellschaft as an intern researcher. Following that experience, I have studied away and completed an internship in Toulouse, France mostly dedicating my time to marketing and social media initiatives at Alliance Française de Toulouse. Finally, in my junior year of college I was fortunate to intern at an art gallery in New York City, where my true passion - creativity - has finally revealed itself. Securing all those internships, respective housing, and supplies for them has been nothing short of an amazing journey and I couldn’t be grateful enough to my college that made it possible for me to take advantage of so many opportunities despite financial challenges. Last but not least, my academic experience wasn’t simply about taking classes and passing exams. Something I truly cherished while getting my Bachelor’s degree was the variety of extracurricular activities that I could partake in. This way, I have served as a Harvard National Model United Nations delegate at my college, attending annual conferences in Boston. In addition, during my studies I became a part of my school’s dancing, journalism, and women in business clubs, participating in which truly allowed me to embrace myself and my interests. It is important to mention that during the one-year gap in my education following college, I have worked extensively to achieve my dreams of becoming a creative director. I moved to New York City and have made my way to work with top fashion agencies and productions as an intern, including 2B Management and The Morrison Group. All of those professional experiences have allowed me to gain a better understanding of what my future career can look like and what steps I need to take in order to achieve it. Finally, as I am stepping into the next step of my academic journey and starting an MFA program at the School of Visual Arts, I feel beyond grateful to pursue this life-changing opportunity. My dream of becoming a creative director as well as launching my own creative production which will work with minority artists has never been closer. After years of hard work of expanding my interests, studies, and goals, I am fortunate to have a clear vision of my future where creativity meets community and spreads the good in the world. This being said, I believe to be an excellent candidate for receiving the help of the Christian Fitness Association General Scholarship. This opportunity could truly help me and my family reduce the financial burden of graduate school while elevating my potential in academic and professional matters.

As an international student coming from Ukraine, my educational and professional journeys have been significantly shaped by my background. Moving so far away from home at the age of 17 and experiencing war from a distance have been some of the biggest challenges I faced in my life. At the same time, both of these events helped me get a clear vision of what I want to build and how it will serve my community. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Business last Spring, I explored the job market in New York City, working hard to become financially and professionally independent. Trying myself out at multiple companies, I realized what attracted me the most was the creativity behind any business. Given that art was my long-term passion, everything came together: I set a goal of building a creative production studio, which will employ the members of my community and any other communities affected by the war. I truly believe that this initiative can help young talented artists and creatives who haven’t been so fortunate to receive a spotlight in the industry just yet. Through building the creative production studio I am hoping to involve Ukrainian and other talents (including photographers, stylists, makeup and hair artists, graphic designers, content creators, and more) in comprehensive projects within the art and entertainment industry. I am confident that I will be able to build this not only because of my business skills and continuing my education, but also because I have completed two internships with NYC-based creative productions where I have carefully observed and learned the operations from the best. To achieve this goal of mine, I decided to continue pursuing higher education in the United States’ creativity hub: New York City. After getting accepted to the Master of Fine Arts in Design program at The School of Visual Arts, I have been absolutely thrilled to know that I will be able to receive all the necessary design and creative direction skills in order to open a creative production studio. However, one of the challenges that I am currently facing is the financial part of my education. Since my family has lost their business to the occupation of the south of Ukraine, it is a struggle for them to support me. Therefore, the “Let’s Aim Higher” Scholarship would be a valuable asset that will allow me to change not only my future but the future of my community. Finally, expanding the representation of Ukrainian and other minority creatives across the arts and entertainment in the United States is a huge milestone for me on professional and personal levels. I am truly hoping to give young creatives freedom to grow within their sphere of interests. I am certain that rebuilding my country starts with helping its people embrace their talent, strength, and resilience.

Growing up in Ukraine in the early 2000s, my mental health has been repeatedly challenged in strange and contradictory ways. There was always something in the air: post-Soviet greed, a cultural inferiority complex, the Orthodox obsession with suffering – the list goes on. Even today, having lived in the U.S. for five years among kids my age, seeing the acronym “FYP” makes me think of Stalin’s “Five-Year Plan” rather than “For You Page.” With a background like that, there is no real time for contemplating your mental health; all the energy is directed to perfection and pragmatic overachievement. There is no real time until you end up in a children’s psychiatric ward at 16 diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Then you have time to sit around and think about what went south. I did in fact spend the short but full of memories five days in that hospital thinking. Not about mental health, but about how to escape the facility with a once-per-week shower policy. It didn’t hurt that I was a senior in high school that fall. Somehow, applying to U.S. colleges seemed like a plan. I remember my dad picking me up from the hospital to take an IELTS (English proficiency) exam. Fortunately, anorexia turned out to be very treatable and running away was an option for obedient patients. To everybody’s surprise, I did well on my exams, received merit-based scholarships in multiple colleges, and headed off to follow my American dreams all by myself at the humble age of 17. Frankly speaking, it wasn’t that I realized that a change of scenario and shift of focus would heal me. I was still a bratty teenager. I chose to study business and mathematics because it seemed cool and prestigious. I got all A’s because it kept me thinking I had control over something other than my body. It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I started subconsciously realizing and unpacking what anorexia meant for me. It didn’t mean perfection and imbalance of neurotransmitters. It meant I was sensitive and easily impressed. It meant I wanted to curate and direct something rather frantically. It meant I felt so deeply and would do anything to disappear because of the lack of self-expression. It meant I was an artist – and my whole life I had absolutely zero idea about it. Looking back, of course there were signs. I can recall that I once decided I would recover if that meant I could design a book of poems about the course of my illness. Once I realized I was an artist, there was absolutely nothing that could stop me. I switched my studies to art and found out I was an excellent figure painter, which got me into gallery shows. I moved to New York City the day after graduating college and have since worked with some of the most talented artists, creatives, and celebrities of our time. Moreover, I got an opportunity to expand my knowledge in art by receiving a Master of Fine Arts this upcoming fall in the city that now feels like home while my actual one is at war. Having achieved this level of artistic freedom, I can confidently say that I owe a lot of it to the mental illness I overcame. Although I know one can look at a life-threatening disease as a fog that blurs the line between who they truly are and who society expects them to be, I choose not to believe that. I will stand by the idea that experiencing anorexia has been a major revelation for me. It has not only shaped my future and goals; it has ultimately allowed me to realize who I am and what path in life I am to follow. Moreover, it has completely reshaped the most important relationship in my life, the one I have with myself. Because there is nothing like understanding that your mind can take you to the darkest place and back to the Light. Finally, both the horrors of the three-year anorexia battle and the lifelong recovery that followed made me who I am today: full of life, creativity, and refined sugar. I received an unbearable gift of knowing who I am and remembering the cost of finding out.