I am currently a Macaulay Honors freshman at Hunter College. As a chemistry major and a graduate of Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences, I plan to pursue a career in either medical research or pharmacology upon graduating from Hunter. I am also an avid bookworm and enjoy pouring through shelves of thick volumes of classic literature, attending plays and musicals (or watching their movie adaptations), traveling to different cities, and simply sipping coffee or bubble tea after hectic school days. I speak Russian and Spanish and hope to someday become fluent in French.

Whenever I am asked about my heritage, I usually take a moment to consider whether to give the condensed or the detailed description of my family’s background. I was born in Vilnius, Lithuania and came to the United States in 1993. My mother was born in Minsk, Belarus while my father was born in Vilnius. All four of my grandparents originally came from Russia. In terms of religion, my father’s side of the family is Russian Orthodox, while my mother’s is Jewish. I am looking forward to studying more about my mother’s heritage in this class through researching family and gender relations among Eastern European Jews. My partner for studying family and gender relations will be Lidiya Kurin.