Mariia Fylyppova

Mariia Fylyppova describes herself as serious, positive, and curious. After spending one year of high school as an exchange student in the United States she started perceiving the world differently and now she is ready to explore every part of it.

“The first couple of months in the US were difficult, because it was like a world apart. I could not understand the culture at first, especially the smiling part. Some people thought that I was a Russian spy, because I didn’t smile. I was surprised that people wanted to get to know me. And that’s when I started opening up to people,” says Mariia.

Mariia is an 18-year-old student from Melitopol, Ukraine. She is an alumna of the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) for high school students. Before coming to AUBG, Mariia spent a year in King George County, Virginia, US. She says that being away from her family and friends has helped her to get out of her comfort zone.

“When I was thinking about coming back home, I knew that people would expect me to be the same. I told my family and my friends that I’ve changed and that they should not expect me to be the same person I was a year ago,” she says.

In addition to this life-changing experience in the US, in November 2018, Mariia started working as an English language tutor. She gives online classes to kids and teenagers. She says that she enjoys teaching and builds the program in a way that would be interesting to the kids.

Besides her work, Mariia also devotes time to the university studies and extracurricular activities. Her choice of majors, for now, is Political Science and International Relations and Economics. In her free time, Mariia plays the piano. She has been playing the instrument for 13 years and, simultaneously, attending dancing classes and, later, aerobics.

Mariia says that she is glad that she was never forced to play the piano. It was her choice to continue doing what she liked and that kept her interest. She appreciates the freedom. “I don’t feel attached and to me, it’s the best feeling ever. It’s also a definition of freedom to me — not being attached to anyone or anything.”

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Yenlik O’Neill is studying Journalism and Mass Communication at AUBG. After interviewing freshman, Yenlik realized that she found a person with similar interests and worldviews.