Valeriia Hryhorova

My name is Lera. I was born on a snowy March morning sixteen years ago. As the only child in the family, I was eager to try everything at once. By the age of eighteen months, I knew the alphabet; at five, I won my first international math competition. From an early age, I’ve been used to combining diverse and not always compatible interests. By the time I was twelve, there seemed to be no club left in my hometown of Kharkiv that I hadn’t joined — from math workshops to trampoline training. A month before my thirteenth birthday, for reasons well known, I had to say goodbye to home. Once in Germany, I realized how fleeting life can be — home, school desk, boxing gloves — all of it vanishes in the blink of an eye. I figured out that knowledge, experience, and human connection are the only things that truly stay with you. They survive at any temperature. Just a couple of years ago, I was struggling to choose the right path that would let me combine my ambitions, analytical mind, and creative nature. My love of mathematics and language skills, strategic thinking, and interest in neuroscience. At the same time, it was important not to box myself in, which is difficult to avoid when you are interested in so many things at once. The answer did not take long to find. Now I am studying neurophysiology in depth, volunteering, working with the international community on various projects, learning new languages, writing for the school newspaper, and preparing to enroll in a business-oriented program where marketing intersects with neuropsychology. There’s a big difference between me at five and me at sixteen — but also a lot in common. She wanted to be an astronaut. I still aim for the stars.