About Me

Profile

About:

Born in Soviet Union, now Ukraine, my family and I after a six month stop in Italy were able to be sponsored to emigrate to The United States of America when to San Antonio, TX when I was two. After growing up in Texas and my sister going to UT, it was not a difficult choice to come here, and I do not regret my decision one bit. I am currently a fourth year studying Finance and a combined major in Spanish & Portuguese.
Music is a passion of mine with private piano lessons from my mom all throughout my childhood and of course when I come home. Through music, I find it as a comforting way to handle whatever might come my way, so you will usually find me listening to music. Outside of music and concerts, I enjoy playing tennis, racquetball, and disc golf. Recently I have picked up disc golf after one of my friends introduced me to the sport. I became inspired enough to start a club here at UT.

Why I Ride

I ride for my mentor, Emanuel Herrera. Originally beginning as a social worker for the Jewish Federation, he began advising new immigrant families about the educational opportunities here in our schools and would work with me and other children to motivate us to reach our full potential. During my freshman year of college a tumor was found in his brain, and he had his first operation in the spring. Since I had a calculus test and economics test back to back I could not make it, but they were able to take out almost the entire tumor without significant brain damage, which was incredible. The malignant tumor though continued to spread, therefore steroids and chemotherapy was next option and he continued to fight, even at times when the medication caused so much loss of energy, ability to do the things that he enjoyed, and communicate with the people he loved. A person who was originally given a prognosis of two months surpassed that to live over a year.

At times I did not understand why he demanded so much attention to detail and recommended that we take all AP classes, after a few arguments I understood that at no point he was doing this for himself but rather for us. If it was not for him I would not have my passion for community service and be in the position where I am at one of the best overall university in the country.

I ride for Emanuel, and also for those who wanted to be there for their loves ones but could not. We share the pain of cancer and celebrate every small victory. As we continue to fight and learn from our experiences indirectly or directly with cancer, we will move closer to our goal for a cure.