I was born in Odessa in 1993, but didn’t stay for long as my parents fled the newly independent Ukraine 4 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We moved to Texas and grew up in Frisco for the majority of my younger life (1995-2012) before leaving for college. I attended Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) for my bachelors. After graduating in 2017, I found myself in Connecticut working for Honeywell as a Sales Engineer focusing on combustion systems for industrial manufacturing. While working full-time, I entered the Masters of Engineering program at the University of Hartford. While at Hartford, I was selected for a Graduate Co-Op at Pratt & Whitney, so I left my job at Honeywell and finished my last semester working as a Structural Engineer in the High Cycle Fatigue Group until the end of summer (2020). Upon graduation, I was selected to become an Officer for the Marine Corps as an Air Contract in the September class. Unfortunately, eleven weeks into officer training school I sustained an injury that prevented me from finishing the last graded event. Forced to take medical leave, I moved back to Dallas to recover and work on my newly founded real estate construction company until I leave again for Officer Candidate School, so I can fulfill my dream of flying and to apply my engineering background to become a Flight Test Engineer.