Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother.
She is really my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
their perspectives, and emotions about this world.
In these difficult times in human history, we need to bring the people of the world together.
And when we hear the voices of women, when we listen to real lives of women from other
countries, we connect our cultures without differences or stereotypes.
And we get inspired by their stories to live a better life.
That's what this podcast is all about.
My guest today is Anna Arsenko.
Anna is a Ukrainian girl and a Green Heart alumna, currently a 12th grade senior in an
American school finishing her education in Texas.
Anna was an active participant in American clubs last year, and next year she will study
business management.
Anna loves singing, drawing, and volunteering, and she received an honor medal for raising
the Ukrainian flag.
She received the Award of Excellence in Drawing.
Her picture was selected for rodeo.
She took second place in her town Kyiv for participating in the Minor Academy of Ukraine.
Minor Academy of Ukraine, her topic was computer slang in ninth grade, and she was an honor
student throughout her high school.
Anna, how are you today?
Hello, I'm great.
What about you?
I'm feeling grateful to be alive, really happy and excited to discover more about you.
So I'll begin with this nice first question.
If your friends, the people who know you best, could describe your personality, what would
they say about you?
My friends would describe me as ambitious, confident, and a thoughtful person.
Ambitious because I am always ready to take new opportunities and I'm open for all the
new opportunities, thoughtful because I always listen to people.
I always think about different ideas.
I'm open to new ideas and I make great choices.
And also confident because during my exchange here in America, I have developed my self-confidence.
I met so many friends that I'm still connected with and I'm so, so grateful for them.
Thank you.
That's so interesting and actually rare.
So I'll begin asking about one aspect.
When it comes to being ambitious, when it comes to going out of your comfort zone, a
lot of people, maybe they're scared, they stay with the routine.
They don't want to try new things and risk failure.
What motivates you or what mindset or beliefs do you have that allow you to face those risks
and actually be comfortable with the discomfort of going out of your comfort zone?
I was mostly a quiet person all of my life, but American high school changed me a lot.
I have joined a lot of clubs because I was really interested to find out about more things
and to find more friends.
I was honestly so, so scared to, as you said, go out of my comfort zone and to speak to
people, but my advice is just start doing small steps as I did.
I was so, so scared and nervous before I met my best friends and I just went and I talked
to her and I introduced myself and asked about her name and that's how we kind of clicked
out together and became best friends.
So my advice that you cannot be bored with self-confidence, I think, but you can develop
this as I developed my self-confidence.
Just go out and try to speak to people because our world is so small and that's how I met
all the precious people and all the wonderful people in my life, just talking to people.
I understand and it's interesting that you mentioned the American high school system
and how it allowed you to open up, to try many activities.
Maybe now, as someone with experience and education in Eastern Europe and in Europe,
what do you think are some positive things that the educational system in Ukraine or
in other parts of Europe can learn from American high schools so that all the students can
explore more before they decide what to study?
In my Ukrainian school, for example, we did not have any choice to choose our subjects.
We were provided with subjects that you must take in order to graduate and the one thing
that I really like about American high schools that schools actually give you a choice.
I was always into business and stuff and in Ukraine, I didn't have an opportunity to take
business classes and to develop myself more in this first, but when I came to America,
I got four elective classes and I chose all the four business classes.
I think it's really important to give your students a choice to choose some subjects.
Of course, we had some core subjects that I took.
I took mathematics, science and history, for example, but in my opinion, it's also really
important to give students a choice as American school does.
Thank you.
You spoke about your fascination and interest in the topic and the subject of business.
How did you come to this conclusion?
What is the story behind it?
How did you know that it's interesting for you and why?
Back in Ukraine, I read a lot of books about different famous business partners and I went
to forum.
It was called Big Money with Different Speakers.
I participated in different projects also in Ukraine.
I was in Klychko Foundation, we had a project and it was called debate and public speaking.
That was really, really interesting.
I remember when I was choosing my American subjects, I called my friend and asked advice
and so my friend, he told me that he chose business classes, business management, information,
computer science and he really enjoyed it.
That's why I decided to also try myself in this first and I chose two electives.
I chose business management and business information systems.
Also I have joined the business principles of American club that helped me a lot with
my skills and I would say that how I fell in love with business classes because of my
experience and because how teachers taught us and they told us different insights.
We met so many speakers in America and we even developed our own project and we sold
some things, did fundraising and all this experience has helped me a lot to understand
that I want to be, that I want to major in business marketing and also this year as a
senior I'm taking business principles and marketing and actually only this year in my
new school, we developed a new project.
First time in our whole entire school program that we bought some snacks and stuff and we
sold them and made some profit for our school and that was really great experience for me
also.
Yes.
Thank you.
The interesting part and I will ask you since you have both an interest and a fascination
in business and an experience in volunteering, a lot of volunteer organizations could be
run much, much better if they were run using business methods and tools maybe even for
marketing.
Is this something that you think about or for example in Ukraine you think that most
of the volunteering organizations are run in using the best practices from business
or is this something you want to add or what's your perspective on this topic?
I would say that most volunteering organizations in Ukraine and I all think in America they
are no profit so that means that all the money that's probably can be collected are going
back to organization and I think that for instance in what projects have I participated,
what I would say like to improve probably it's a business financing because it's really
really important to like write down where expenses went and how did they manage money
but in my opinion most of the volunteering organizations in Ukraine, for example, my
phone friends, I was a volunteer in this organization, they did not collect any money and in my opinion
most volunteer organizations do not collect money so they don't really need probably
these business skills.
That's probably more for businesses who are actually doing something with money in my
opinion.
Thank you and as someone who will graduate in business marketing, what is the ideal position
or goal for you that you would love to make your career or do you dream of becoming a
female entrepreneur?
What is your ambition when it comes to business?
So actually right now I'm a senior so I do not have major yet in high school but I'm
planning to pursue my degree in the university by business management degree and after I'll
graduate from university I'm really planning to become an entrepreneur and I really want
to open a Ukrainian business that I can hire and work with with a team from Ukraine and
so different Ukrainian stuff, for example, I'm really into doing different toys from
the pool and I really want to share Ukrainian culture with Americans so my business in the
future would definitely be connected with Ukrainian culture and also I will donate if
I would have a business I would also be like a non-profit organization so I will donate
and I will contribute to my business more to develop it and yes, definitely my business
will be connected with Ukrainian culture in the future.
I love that, that's absolutely patriotic and really awesome.
And before we speak about Ukraine, what is your advice to some girls or younger women
who want to be as active as you, who want to be involved with many, many, many things
but they say well all my time is spent studying or how do I do it without burning out or what's
your productivity method and your advice for them in order to reach more of their goals
within the limited time of the day?
I can agree with that my studying takes a lot of time for me but what I can recommend
that and burning out is actually a really important topic that sometimes can happen
also to me but when I feel that I'm going like my productivity is running out I'm just
trying to take a break and spend time with myself and not fill my day with other activities.
What I did when I did not have any time I studied at night but it's not a good option
of course and also for example when you go to school or to work I listen to different
podcasts like yours I watch different YouTube videos because I had some time on my way home
or on my way to school and it was productive time I watched a lot of TED talks and I searched
about different volunteering options it's so difficult to connect active life with studying
I can relate to that for 100% but my advice would be just not focus like too much on studying
studying is really really important but developing yourself is also really important so just
try to schedule your plans in advance and that's how you can find some time probably
or for example when you do something like homework you can probably turn on some music
or like some videos in the background that can help you and motivates you and also when
I'm studying I'm always listening to calm music to just study and be productive so probably
that's how I would recommend you to do thank you that's great advice I actually recommend
the same things that you do and to ask you about February 24th I know the war in Ukraine
already started in 2014 some people argue it started for hundreds of years but the invasion
the full-scale war on February 24th when you were not probably in Ukraine but how did you
hear about that did you believe it how was your emotion tell me about everything that
happened in your mental health etc from that day until today so before Russia like in two
weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine it was all over the news and all the planes were
taking out of Ukraine with all the like American citizens and I was so scared for my family
and for my friends and for all the relatives and I told them that probably Russia is going
to invade us again but my relatives did not really believe it and they said that because
Russia kept us all in fear for like the long time for eight years even though I remember
when I was small when the war started I was nine in 2014 and every day I was living with
my family in fear like with many Ukrainians that Russia will invade us again sometime
we even I remember when I was in Ukraine we even packed some clothes already we had some
clothes one second in two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine planes started taking out
of Ukraine with American citizens and that's how I understood that something is going wrong
and I called my parents and I was talking with my relatives but they did not really
believe it because Russia kept us in fear since 2014 and we were expecting that they
would like we were we left we live in fear all like I lived in fear all my years as many
Ukrainians and it was kind of I would say probably usual that people did not think Russia
is actually that crazy that they would invite us again and I remember on February 24th I
was sitting talking with my mom on my phone and I heard the explosion in my mom's window
we live in Kiev and I went to news into telegram accounts and I watched news and it said that
Russia officially invited Ukraine in 2022 again I was I was so scared I did not know
how could I help it it was 11 p.m by American time and I was against my mom they started
packing their clothes my mom she was crying and she said that if they would not survive
she wanted someone to take care of me those were the most heartbreaking words I've ever
heard from my mom and I just I couldn't I couldn't believe it I was shaking and I was
crying because I had no idea how could I help sitting in America in a safe place while my
dear Ukraine was bombing by Russia with all the strikes and bombs I just I was frustrated
because I had no idea how I could help that night and so my family they started packing
their clothes and they left and all this one week I couldn't sleep I couldn't eat the next
day of school my host mother she asked me if I want to stay home or if I want to go
to school and I decided to go to school and to be strong so I went to school but I was
constantly on the phone with my mom with my friends with all my relatives it was horrific
because all the school was talking about this and I felt horrible inside I was I felt so
so horrible and terrible when everyone was talking about this and even in the bus station
in the bus in the school bus everyone was talking so so loud about this and I was literally
crying because I didn't know because I knew it was going with my country and I still couldn't
believe it that Russia actually did it and I was crying and when I went when I went home
after bus I was in tears because I didn't know what to do but then I realized that I
have a chance here in America to spread the world and somehow help Ukraine and so the
next day I went to my student council I was a part of student council and with student
council I told all my group of like 130 people what is going on and how we can donate and
how we can help and I got invited to different news stations I got I gave interviews and
I also went to veterans memorial park and raised Ukrainian flag that's why I was honored
it's a medal but those months were horrific I still I don't know those months is just
because I didn't know what to do and those months is I can think about those months is
clearly in my head because everything was going on and I did not know even when I slept
when I ate because I was so nervous about everyone in Ukraine that they would be safe
it was so so horrible I still can't believe that in 21st century there is a war going
on in my country and people are still dying and the most scariest thing that some people
are forgetting Ukraine is not really on news anymore and people are getting used to this
and that's so so terrible and horrible I agree and part of reminding people of the struggle
of Ukrainian is even the little bit that this podcast is doing and all I can say is thank
you and before we finish you said that if you start a business you would love to use
it in a way to share the culture of Ukraine with the world and with people from the US
a little bit if some people don't really know the culture of Ukraine maybe they don't have
Ukrainian friends or never visited how can you share some information about Ukrainian
culture so people get curious to learn more when I was in America I shared with people
about our culture about Vyshivanka Vyshivanka is the Ukrainian word for traditionally styled
shirt or dress and I even bring some Vyshivanka to America with me to give to people to know
how does look like and what is it and about its story because every Vyshivanka has different
stories depending from what series you're from also I told Americans about Petri Kivska
Raspis Petri Kivska Raspis is like a type of Ukrainian art and it's really really beautiful
back in history people used to use this Petri Kivska Raspis to decorate their houses and
to decorate different kitchen and all the stuff like painting also I would tell about
borsh it's Ukrainian national dish and vareniki borsh is a soup with red meat it's not Russian
because some people think think it's Russian and no it's not Russian it's Ukrainian national
dish as well as vareniki and I can talk a lot about Ukrainian culture but I can also
recommend different accounts in Instagram and in Google that you can look for and find
some more information for example if you would type in your Instagram field Ukrainian culture
you'll find multiple accounts with different features that are telling about our Ukrainian
culture and also if you would just search on YouTube like Ukrainian culture the most
famous Ukrainian tradition you will be also able to find this because you have so many
traditions and Ukraine is actually a wonderful country and I'm so proud to be Ukrainian thank
you so much Anna I mean really the world and everyone supports Ukraine I really wish for
you success in your goals and in sharing the Ukrainian culture I wish peace and victory
for Ukraine and again all I can say is lava okraini hello I'm slava and thank you so much
for inviting me here it's really important for me and also I just want to say thank you
for all the people who are supporting Ukraine it's really meaningful for us thank you you
are welcome and thank you again for participating in this project and I really loved talking
to you recording this episode and I wish you to keep going.
