Storytelling and reporting come naturally to me and I’ve made it my mission to transmit stories that show people’s view of the world. As our world conflicts arise from lack of communication and understanding, I aim to work with others to fill this gap. My stories are for people to see life through the eyes of others and realize how similar we all are. The more we know each other, the fewer conflicts we will have.
The seeds of international wanderlust were planted at a early age. My family emigrated from the former Soviet Union when I was three years old. We spent two years in St. Louis, Missouri and then moved to Silicon Valley, California. At 15, I was a foreign exchange student in Pornichet, France and then went to boarding school near Boston, Massachusetts. After studying Political Economy at UC Berkeley and completing my last semester in Budapest, Hungary, I worked for the US Department of Commerce helping Silicon Valley companies export. In 1999, I studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina on a Rotary Scholarship. In Argentina, I interned in the Commercial Section of the US Embassy, helping US companies market and sell in the provincial regions of Argentina. I also edited and wrote for the English language daily, Buenos Aires Herald. Shortly after returning from South America, I left for Bosnia, where I spent 15 months working on economic development projects for the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps. Back in California, I worked as a substitute teacher, religious researcher, Italian wine marketer, and for the Slow Food Movement. Under the auspices of the US State Department and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, I have observed elections in Armenia, Tajikistan and Ukraine. I speak Russian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Portuguese and have studied Hebrew, Arabic and Hungarian.
E-mail: info@kaleidomundi.com