You Can Help Daryna Study in the USA
Hi! I'm Daryna Hrybchuk, an 18 year old student from a low-income Ukrainian family with big dreams and a determination to rebuild my country. I'm passionate about robotics, deep learning, and 3D processing, and I need your help to take the next step toward my educational journey.
My plan: Enroll at De Anza Community College in fall 2025, then transfer to MIT or Stanford in spring of 2026. I want to gain the skills needed to transform Ukrainian education and technology.
800 days of war in Ukraine has not stopped me.
My vision
I want to modernize Ukrainian education by creating labs with up-to-date tech. I believe we have to shift from the post-Soviet model requiring graduate degrees for research because, after the war, Ukraine will need professionals who would have practical skills to rebuild the country. I need $31,082 to cover the first year of my studies (De Anza College cost breakdown), and I'm confident I can return the expertise to my country tenfold.
I developed an AI real-time translator for educational videos and other projects while being a student at the Ukraine Leadership & Technology Academy (ULTA).
Now, I am working on developing AI low-cost imitation learning for robotic arms that I assembled, and will continue it in FR8, a 3-month-long startup accelerator in Finland.
This summer I am joining the MIT Summer Geometry Initiative to research 3D processing and ML for 3D reconstruction.
Your donation can help me to move forward and continue building things ten times faster.
My Story
When I was 8, my father went to war in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine, annexing Crimea and attacking eastern Ukraine. That day also marked a moment when my careless childhood ended.
Being a primary school teacher, my mom never had two things: free time and enough money. I progressively took on more and more chores and by the age of 11, I was the one running the household, only seeing my mom a few hours a day, and my dad a few weeks a year.
When I was 12, my grandfather began forgetting who I was, the man who had been my inspiration, teaching me math over crackling phone calls from his tiny village without internet. Alzheimer's took his memories, but his lessons shaped my passion for math.
When I was 15, I was woken by missile attacks on February 24, 2022, as Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Despite these challenges, I've refused to let circumstances define what I can't do:
I developed an AI real-time translator for educational videos while studying college level classes at Ukraine Leadership & Technology Academy, founded by MIT Ukrainian students.
I started an online bookstore with $70 from my sister to promote English reading in Ukraine. Within months, I achieved $2,500 monthly turnover before competition made it hard to sustain.
When my computer took 38 hours to process 3D object reconstruction from 2D photos, I moved to another city, 4 hours away, to continue the experiment in my sister's neighbor's apartment. I visited him 3-5 times daily to run experiments on his computer. The results weren't perfect, but the persistence helped me to get into MIT Summer Geometry Initiative, where I continue researching ML for 3D reconstruction.
Once, my friend and I decided to work on developing cost-efficient AI for robotic arms. We spent 18 hours assembling it, with one of our ULTA mentors guiding us through the process. It earned us a spot in Europe's best startup accelerator. We'll spend this summer with 30 other builders across the world in a Finnish hacker house.
I am open to chat, contact me: [email protected] or by WhatsApp +380984829069
Website built by Daryna Hrybchuk, Andrii Zahorodnii (MIT '24), and Laker Newhouse (MIT '25). Contact: Daryna Hrybchuk, [email protected]