At twelve years old I was facing a challenge. My father, who won the green card lottery,
extended an opportunity for me to move to the US from Ukraine. Although I was excited about exploring new avenues, this also meant that I had to leave my mother and siblings. But I chose to take the chance. Of course, life was grueling at times. I did not speak English and missed my family. For a few years, I took care of my newborn brother while my stepmother and father were working. I persevered because I knew that ultimately, this investment in myself will prove fruitful. After high school, I made another move - from Buffalo, NY, to NYC to study business.
I became interested in finance after taking a few introductory courses at Baruch College. The banking industry seemed like a real challenge and an opportunity for a high learning curve not just in business, but everything else in life. I also realized that there are very few women executives in the industry. This is one of the reasons that propelled me to start an 85 Broads chapter in Baruch College, in hopes to serve as a bridge for college students and women who made it in the industry.
I am currently pursuing a career in investment banking. As I am a junior in college, the next step would be scoring an internship at one of the largest banks on Wall Street during summer 2013, and taking the necessary steps to receive an offer to work upon graduation. I am looking forward to contributing to this platform for as long as it continues to nurture my hard-working spirit and provides growth opportunities.

While I am passionate about being part of helping businesses evolve and develop, I also plan to create philanthropic ways to give back to the society. In particular, I am working on a practice in Chervonograd, Ukraine, where I am from originally. My goal is to contribute to the infrastructure in grade schools, middle schools, and high schools with items such as computers, teachers' training, and counseling services. If this pilot becomes successful, I would like to implement the same model throughout the rest 11 schools in the town and move towards the more rural parts of the region as well.

I plan to use funding from Pave to cover my essential bills and expenses while I am in college, so that I can utilize my time more efficiently and direct focus on my grades and the rigorous recruiting process for banking. Perhaps the funding will also serve in assisting me with travel opportunities to explore my philanthropic ideas.

Through the mentoring platform, I am hoping to work with a successful individual in the finance field. I would like to further develop my list of relationships within the industry, receive interview advice on both, behavioral and technical aspects, get a chance to learn about innovative ideas in today's world of business.

Growing up in a lower middle class farming community in Northern Michigan, the closest that I came to cultural experiences were the pictures I looked at and the stories I read at the local public library. I never thought of those stories in terms of history and culture until I became a teenager. Although I grew up in a large loving family, my childhood wasn’t one for any storybooks.

When I was twelve years old my family was involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. My youngest sister will never have the same life she would have had if not involved in that accident, but she is a lively bright girl today, and I talk to her almost daily. I am currently aspiring to become an occupational therapist specializing in working with children in at-risk populations. My upbringing and the resiliency of my younger sister have inspired me to earn a graduate degree in order to accomplish my career goals.

Throughout high school I was constantly interested in travel, adventure, literature, and the interworkings of society. When the time came to start thinking about what I would do after graduation, the possibilities excited me. Going to college was not the obvious choice for many graduates of my small public high school. No one in my family had ever gone to college before, but I knew that my lust for learning had to be satisfied. Many young people in my community had barely traveled out of Michigan and I knew that was the kind of future I did not want for myself. I not only saw education as a wonderful opportunity, but I knew that it would come with trials and life tests that would make me a stronger person.

When deciding what school I should attend my family was in favor of a local community college, but spending the next four years of my life less than an hour from my house didn’t seem like the adventure I had been hoping for. Around this time, I had the opportunity to join family friends on a trip to Chicago and visit the Art Institute there. I gawked at the glorious Monets on exhibit. I had only seen pictures of such iconic artwork in art books. Because of the elation and freedom that I experienced during that trip, I knew Chicago was where I needed to go to college. When I decided to attend Roosevelt University, I realized it would present vast obstacles, but I wanted something new, something different; a college experience that would challenge me intellectually, socially, and culturally.

Moving from the only home I had ever known to a large city where I didn’t know anyone, leaving friends and family behind, has been both the most difficult and amazing thing I have done in my young life. Upon my arrival at school, every day was filled with new trials and experiences. From navigating public transportation to flying on an airplane for the first time, my first year at Roosevelt University seemed like being within a vast sea of discovery and realization.
After living and learning in the environment of an urban university, I recognize the need for culturization among the young people of my home community and others like it. There is a strong value system that exists where I grew up which suggests that higher education is not a priority, and I hope to use my experience in education to help break down that misconception. I believe that education is one of the most important investments young people can make in their futures.

Although the prospect of continuing my education at the graduate level is immensely exciting, I know that it will not be without challenges and hurdles. Part of entering the world of higher education was learning to navigate the financial aid process and finding a way to pay for my education. By working a full time job this past summer and an on-campus job during my studies, I hope to ensure that my finances do not exclude me from the amazing opportunity of a career as an occupational therapist. I also hope to work as a teaching assistant while getting my graduate degree. I know that funds raised through Pave will have a tremendously positive effect on the outcome of my education.

I'm an entrepreneur and innovator by nature. I've spent the better part of my adult life working with homeless youth and adults and developing innovative programs to help them overcome their situation through education, employment, and a sense of pride and purpose in life.

I've enjoyed working in the trenches with our participants and staff and growing my idea of using sport as a tool for social change into a national nonprofit. Street Soccer USA is a sport for social change program which transfers life and job skills to homeless youth and young adults through sports. I founded the program as an experiment in 2007. Since becoming a standalone organization in 2010, Street Soccer USA has expanded and now operates in 20 cities across the US, working with 2,000 participants annually.

Programs are fully integrated with existing teen, family, and regular homeless shelters as well as group homes and recovery houses. Participants must set 3, 6, and 12 month goals. Each year all participants travel to participate in the national Street Soccer USA Cup in what amounts to the nation's premier sport for social change event. The 2012 event was held in Times Square, New York City in July. To date, 75% of participants successfully achieve outcomes in education, employment, or housing within a year of joining the program, compared with a normal success rate of around 30% for this population. Their lives of isolation, marginalization and frustration are transformed by experiences of community, trust, and achievement.

Based on the success of my organization, I was recently recognized by Amex/Ashoka as one of 15 social entrepreneurs likely to form the next generation of leaders who will solve the world's critical challenges. Earlier this year, I started the executive MBA program at Columbia University because I wanted to raise the ceiling on what I could achieve as an entrepreneur and as a leader. At Street Soccer USA, while we have established the course of growth and defined the mission and method for our social program, we have also developed several entrepreneurial initiatives with tremendous potential that would grow more effectively under a for-profit model. On a short time frame and a shoestring budget, Street Soccer USA executed a unique three-day event in Times Square last summer, bringing in portable Street Soccer courts and drawing a huge crowd. Through sponsorships and corporate team registration, we turned a $40,000 profit.

At Columbia, I am working on a business plan that will enable us to grow our Street Soccer event business much in the way that the Tough Mudder company has expanded and grown its events. Given our existing footprint and the networks we have built in 20 cities already (we operate profit-generating amateur leagues in San Francisco and Charlotte, NC) we are well positioned to be successful. In conjunction with growing this business we are developing a soccer lifestyle brand, “I Play For.” By growing these initiatives as a separate entity from the social program, we will be able to create a larger pie and ultimately deliver more benefits to the social program than under the current model. We plan on hiring program graduates as employees whenever possible for our leagues and events.

With the funds from Pave, I’m looking to pay off my Columbia tuition so I can focus full time on growing Street Soccer USA. I’d also like to invest in a new wall system for our Street Soccer courts, which will substantially reduce costs and increase our margins on our events. I am excited to work with mentors whose network or personal experience can help me run and grow this business. I enjoy working in teams and have a lot to learn so am very open to outside help.

As a child, I always had a knack for music. I begged to listen to "Masterpiece Theater" and began playing/performing piano at the age of 4. My music teacher urged my mother to enroll me in composition classes at the local university, but I opted out to play hockey and just be a normal kid. In middle school, I played the contrabass and performed in the school orchestra as first chair.

In high school, I got into jazz. My father has been a professional jazz guitarist in the Detroit area for years. He always told me not to play guitar, because bass players get more gigs! But when he finally bought me a guitar for Christmas at age 17, I fell in love with the instrument and it took priority in my life.

In a summer program at Berklee College of Music, I was able to perform and exchange ideas with other accomplished young musicians. The program helped me understand things like harmony and music theory. Back home in Detroit, I formed a progressive rock/fusion ensemble that performed throughout southeast Michigan. In between gigs, I taught regularly at famous Michigan music store Huber and Breese. I was the youngest teacher they’d had in over 30 years. With the ability to play many styles of music, efficiently read music notation, a good understanding of music theory, and being able to relate to students, I was a great instructor.
I decided to enroll in school to continue my jazz education. With a guitar program taught by top instructors and professional musicians, Smith McNally School of Music was a dream come true. This is where I met my mentor, Mike Elliott, one of my top influences. Mike had a reputation for being a taskmaster, but being as confident as I was back then, I felt I was up for the challenge. Shortly after meeting Mike, he took me under his wing. All the rumors were true! I had never worked so hard in my life, and it paid off. I would spend hours at school every day practicing and studying, head over to Mike’s to practice some more, and then accompany him to his gigs - every night for two years! It was very sad for me to see Mike struggle with complications from diabetes, and I was glad I got to see him one last time when I was on tour before he passed.

Mike was the person who introduced me to the great gypsy guitar player Django Reinhardt. One day, Mike said, “You ever hear about that two-fingered French gypsy from the ‘30s who was better than everyone?” This inspired me to go purchase a “Best of Django Reinhardt” CD. From the very first note of Django’s solo on the first track, I was completely blown away. No one I knew had ever even heard of Django, and I didn’t realize the extremely difficult and demanding guitar playing needed to make this music. But my newfound love for the sound, the technical brilliance, expression, and passion in this music pushed me to hunker down and devote all of my time to learning this mysterious art form. With money saved from teaching and gigs, I was able to purchase my very first Django style guitar from the Netherlands. Spending every free moment practicing this new music, I slowly evolved away from the modern sounds of jazz and into more traditional styles.
After a brief stint in the competitive Western Michigan University jazz program, which wasn’t a great fit, I found my niche at Wayne State. I told the director of the jazz program there, Matt Michaels, that I wanted to start my own gypsy-jazz combo called “The Hot Club of Detroit.” He loved the idea and was impressed that I even knew who Django Reinhardt was. So I recruited the best players around me and started holding jam sessions at WSU. I taught everyone how to properly play this music; the melodies, the rhythms, the repertoire. Rather than the same old jazz standards and parker riffs everyone was used to, it seemed that this music was so old that it was new again, refreshing. Matt took the liberty of booking our combo all over town, and soon we were getting requests to perform at all types of functions.

The Hot Club of Detroit soon won the Heineken Jazz Star Quest, winning the chance to perform at the Detroit International Jazz Fest. Festival founder Bob McCabe caught our performance. He came backstage after the show completely dumbfounded; he couldn't believe a group like this existed. We were invited to perform at a dinner party Bob and his friends having in downtown Detroit. There were company executives, producers, and other industry folks in the crowd. After the show (which was apparently an audition) I was packing up when Al Pryor, producer and executive for Mack Avenue Records, came over and introduced himself. “Well, this is the easiest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life,” he said. “We love your group and want to give you a record deal!” It seemed all the hard work, trials and tribulations, endless hours in the practice room... had led up to this point. Within 6 months we were recording and mixing our first record at Sony studios in NYC.

With a full performing schedule, I decided to put school on hold and fully pursue a career in music performance for the first time in my life. I was given the freedom to choose the repertoire, do the arrangements, and conduct the recording sessions for all four releases Hot Club of Detroit has put out on Mack Ave. Two of these records made the Top 10 jazz charts, with one staying there for 12 weeks. We have won 11 Detroit Music Awards. Independently, I’ve had the chance to perform for the opening of the Django Reinhardt exhibit at Cite de la Musique in Paris, sharing the stage with Django’s grandson David - a true honor.

I have been in guitar magazines, on the radio, and touring across the country. But it’s still a struggle. Even now that I’m signed to a major record label, the majority of my funds still come from hustling gigs in and around Detroit. There are no big signing bonuses in the jazz world. With the current lack of financial support for festivals and performing arts centers, musicians and performers are the ones who suffer. My band is doing well, and we have plenty of dates on the books through 2014. Yet I find myself having to spend time doing odd jobs and teaching to just get the bills paid. On top of it all, I still have some debt from years ago. If I take off time to write new music or finish my education, I would have no income to keep the lights on.
I would love to return to school to focus on music education, while also continuing to write and tour with my group. My instructors at WSU that I have known for so long would even allow me to miss school for touring as long as I keep up with the work. I hope to take advantage of this unique opportunity now that Pave is providing me with the funds to make it possible.

For the past two summers, I have had the opportunity to work at the World Bank in Washington DC as a research assistant. In short, I loved the experience. It pushed me intellectually in an environment more rigorous than a classroom. Because I was the only member of the team without a PhD, I frequently had to acquire skills and knowledge on the fly - and because of time pressure, I applied the knowledge to my work as soon as I gained it. As the only American on the research team, I enjoyed being a part of a multinational and multicultural work environment. Our research centered on the role of government in financial systems along a few dimensions: regulation, promoting competition, and developing a financial infrastructure.

At school, I have two academic passions: psychology and economics. Specifically, I am interested in where the two meet. Last semester, volunteering in the Neuroeconomics lab at Claremont Graduate University allowed me to indulge in both pursuits. However, my favorite intellectual activity thus far has been the transdisciplinary Behavioral Economics class I took my sophomore year. I found the intersection of social interaction, personal attitudes, and fiscal behavior extremely interesting.

I started my own business during the spring of 2012, as part of an independent study. The business, called KooChooFlee, is based on the eponymous traditional Chilean treat of cuchuflí. I pledged half of all profits to charities that preserved the Chilean Patagonia where my mother grew up. From this, a natural slogan arose: “Grab a stick, save a tree. Get yourself some KooChooFlee!”
Being an entrepreneur has had unique challenges. KooChooFlee was a one-man operation; I produced, packaged, marketed, and sold the treats myself. In the process, I took an FDA course on importing and handling food products, experimented with different cooking methods, petitioned the college president to change a rule so I could sell my product, and devised an effective marketing scheme. It was an enormously satisfying experience to have people buy the KooChooFlee and return with their friends to buy more. I was able to put KooChooFlee on the market for two months, in which I managed to break even and even donate a nominal amount towards preservation of the Chilean Patagonia.

Currently, the production of KooChooFlee is on hiatus. As a one-man operation, it is too time-consuming to continue alone. I plan to put the funding from Pave towards finding a bakery that can produce it for me or paying employees to assist me with the process in-house.

Ultimately, I am interested in a career in finance. While my parents teach finance, the academic and professional perspectives are, by nature, quite different. I would like a mentor who is available to advise me about potential professional directions and paths that someone with my background and interests could take.

Twenty years ago, at the age of seven, I declared myself an aspiring filmmaker. So began the status quo: learning in-camera editing from my older brother in elementary school, film camp at 15, cutting 16mm celluloid by hand, writing short fiction and making short films, procuring a first degree in writing and a second degree in filmmaking. I’ve been cultivating a fertile mind and whole heart for cinema for as long as I can remember.

In the behind-the-scenes footage from MAGNOLIA, a 28-year-old P.T. Anderson addresses his cast and crew moments before they roll the first take. I paraphrase: "There's no shame in trying to make a great film." With this reminder I shamelessly confess my deepest truth to you – my ambition, goal, and passion are to make nothing short of brilliant cinema; to change cinema.

The kinds of films I aspire to make, the likes of which screen every year at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin, struggle greatly to get off the ground in the US. There’s no government funding for film here and studios are disinclined to green-light outside the box of commercialism. Last year, I was honored to have my short film officially compete at the Stockholm Film Festival. The film to which mine lost, a gorgeous Hungarian short by a veteran director twenty years my senior, was funded by... Hungary. With the system we have in place here in the US, even those few angel investors and financiers who support my kind of filmmaking are overwhelmed with proposals. It’s only with conditions such as these that the most audacious option becomes the best option – to raise the money on one’s own. But what young filmmaker with grad school debt could rightly get a loan for an endeavor so high-risk as making a film or so ambiguous as "having a film career?"

How I plan to overcome these challenges is with locomotive force, focused will, and the perfect project as my first feature. In preparation for this, I have focused on improving my craft by producing a pair of features and editing several short pieces. All the while, I was writing my fourth feature script, which is currently a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. I believe this script has tremendous potential both on its own and as a challenge to me given my creative goals as a filmmaker and thinker. Through it, I aim to focus on the primary central tension that interests me: between the tenderness of the human condition and the coldness of existential angst; between the traditionally "feminine" and the traditionally "masculine."

Some of the directors who have struck a successful balance between these two archetypes include Kubrick, Ceylan, Bertolucci, Kieslowski, Hsiao Hsien, P.T.A., James Gray, Malick, and Bergman. These are, appropriately, some of my greatest influencers and idols.

Careers in any field cannot be made based on talent or superlative work alone; everyone who has ever been hired or promoted was given a chance by somebody who believed in him/her. Aside from the financial component of backing from Pave, there's also the immeasurably valuable mentorship component that excites me for both the short and long term. Filmmaking is complicated, at times dangerous, and impossibly arduous. Further, it can’t be done alone, ipso facto; cinema requires community. As someone with a deep-seated passion and drive for film, I can't convey how unnerving it is to feel my life's dream may come down to whether or not the right person sees something in me and my vision. Pave's support will greatly catalyze that crucial turning point in my career; it could very well be the turning point itself.

Enter Pave and its unique platform. I'm submitting a request for $50,000 of seed money for my first feature. With these funds we will fulfill our first phase of fundraising and development, enabling us to:

-Hire an attorney
-Establish an LLC and accounts
-Hire an experienced Line Producer to fine tune the budget and schedule
-Take time to focus on script revision
-Make an offer to a big name actress
-Commence second wave of fundraising and hiring
Depending on the willingness and schedule of my backers, I can imagine the mutual growth that will arise from years of film recommendations, script drafts, introducing potential collaborators, and film cuts; relationship building. That such a connection could be forged with someone who has come before me, who understands the specific challenges a relationship with film can bring, is so moving a possibility.

It’s a recurring scene, another Thursday night and most of my contemporaries are out celebrating the culmination of the arduous school week. I am in school, careening incessantly from one interview to the next, camera in tow, ears eager and heart enlightened. And I couldn’t be happier.

To say I have had a desire to enter the field of journalism is a gross understatement at best. It’s an indescribable feeling when I read an aesthetically pleasing sentence, or see an in-depth piece of reporting, I am immediately filled with almost childlike bewilderment. If I had to pick one word to define my career and my ambition it would be “create.” That’s what I want to do, create things, cultivate dreams and spread ideas. I want to create greatness.
Rooted in student journalism for the time being, I have been extremely committed to our school paper The Ticker. Last year, I was published over a record 110 times, my work vacillating from arts, sports, features and anything in between. As a result I was awarded with the highly-coveted “Writer of the Year” award.

For me it’s not the fame of a byline that keeps me going but the impact of my stories. I recall two instances where I truly felt alive as a journalist. Last year, I wrote an Op-ed on the disastrous state of the language listening labs, which operated on very outdated software. The day after my piece was published I was put on a committee to change the program, as a result at Baruch we now have Rosetta Stone software for students.

Sometimes it’s the smaller changes that resonate the most. I recently wrote a story about a fantastic student who suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Unfortunately she is often forced to wait to use the bathroom as many well-abled students wrongly use the more spacious handicapped bathroom. After the story was printed a student told me she would never use the handicapped bathroom again. To know that my story made someone’s life a little better is worth more than any award.
In my free time, I find myself poring over the musings of my favorite journalist Dexter Filkins with reckless abandon. His 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Forever War,” sits permanently on my desk, more akin to a textbook than a leisurely read. Like Filkins, I believe my passion lies in foreign correspondence and creative non fiction. I will go abroad and put my stamp on the world of journalism. The world we live in is changing rapidly; we live in an age of unprecedented knowledge and opportunity. There are too many untold stories, too many quiet screams and too many narrow minds. I want to remove the shackles and barriers which keep us apart. I believe it is my duty to live a life dedicated to truth and change. I want meet people from all walks of life and share their stories.

Unfortunately, most journalism today lacks real storytelling. Instead we are subjected to a myriad of misinformation, sensationalism and mediocre reporting. I remain undeterred however as my passion precedes me.

It is hard to put into words what the pave platform would do for my career. It would open the doors which are often only available to a select few. I have no doubt that I will achieve everything I believe in and pave would uniquely help open doors that I may not even know about.

There are two dreams which I have been uniquely focused on. Firstly- the plight of Haiti- It stands alone, a forgotten country in the midst of a changing world. Mired in poverty, Haiti has become a cesspool of violence and corruption it is a shock that human beings have to live like this. I would love to go to Haiti and do some real reporting on what’s going on there.

Secondly as a teenager I read a book which changed my life “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.” since that day I have been drafting my own book designed to help young adults truly reach their potential, however due to financial costs associated with paying my own way through school I have been unable to publish this book. That is something I would want to do, share my thoughts with the world in the hopes that I can do something to improve it.

I want to understand the world of media. There was something I noticed a couple years ago that changed how I approached my career. While I bubble with enthusiasm and show an excitement for the world of journalism, without the requisite tools and soft skills (which only come from years of experience) I will be at a disadvantage. As a result I have read every book in sight and pestered my professors for any help they can give. But nothing compares to one on one mentoring. In terms of the kind of mentoring I would be looking for, I would like to work with someone who sees the value in the youth and sees what kind of impact we can have. I would love to work with a journalists who can correct me when wrong while also allowing me room to grow and learn on my own. In the ideal mentor-mentee relationship we would grow together, challenging each other to improve as journalists and ultimately as people.

During a time when most kids were watching Saturday morning cartoons, my days were filled with fixing the VCR, building forts, and taking apart and rebuilding household furniture and electronics. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be an engineer.

I am now pursuing my Bachelor of Science in industrial and systems engineering at Wayne State University. Since enrolling, I have taken on several leadership roles in addition to my full courseload in engineering. Currently, I am the President of the Engineering Student-Faculty Board (ESFB). My role includes acting as the liaison between the 14 engineering organizations within the College of Engineering, and between Wayne State’s faculty, staff and alumni. I am also a student mentor, student ambassador, DAPCEP (Detroit Area Pre- College Engineering Program) instructor, and on the growth committee for ClickTheCause, a not-for-profit organization that allows people to connect and invest in their local community.

After graduation, I plan to immediately pursue a leadership position within the industrial and manufacturing sector. I have already held relevant internships at Volkswagen Group of America, DTE Energy and Ford. Once I have received sufficient industry experience, it is my prime objective to focus on nurturing my entrepreneurial passion and begin my own business venture in either the for-profit or not-for-profit segments. Pave will assist in my pursuit by supporting my education, cultivating my leadership skills, and providing me with the capital to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams.

Through continuous self-improvement, I have no doubts that I will achieve the vision I have for myself. I am honored to call myself an engineer, and even more proud to call myself a Detroit engineer. I look forward to using Pave as a stepping stone to nurture my passions and reach my career goals.