Another week, another team member spotlight post! Simran here, and today, I am excited to share the story of our newest member, Anastasia Usatii! Anastasia works alongside Mahija as a Director of Outreach for School for a Village.

At School for a Village, alongside Mahija, Anastasia oversees our current network of dedicated Chapters and Ambassadors, as well as actively recruits high school and college students nationwide who are passionate about equitable access to STEM education to join our community. This is no easy task and it certainly requires great leadership ability and organizational skills, but Anastasia continues to rise to the challenge! But who is Anastasia, other than a brilliant leader & initiative-taker? Tune in to learn more about her story!

Anastasia is a 20 year old college sophomore at the University of Minnesota, where she is currently studying Neuroscience with a minor in Spanish. She is originally from Grand Forks, North Dakota, but what’s unique about her childhood is that she actually moved around to a bunch of different places all over the United States. Like many on our team, she is the daughter of immigrants—her parents are both originally from Moldova, a small country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union. Not many people are familiar with Moldova (I am, thanks AP Euro), so Anastasia and her family call themselves Russian because the cultures are super similar. Anastasia is also the oldest sibling (strengthening my argument that the eldest child is superior), and she has two younger brothers, aged sixteen and twelve. Because Anastasia has lived in so many different places, I naturally had to ask her which place was her favorite! Anastasia really loved living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota because that is the place she associates with many of her best, most memorable childhood moments. Sioux Falls was where she made her first best friend, and she was lucky that many of her neighbors had kids her age that she and her brothers could easily play with. It was here that Anastasia also formed many memories with her youngest brother, who is eight years younger than she is. Because of the large age difference, Anastasia helped take care of him—although, this was no chore at all. Anastasia loved being able to read books to her brother and entertain him when he was a baby. I have a brother who is 10 years younger than me, so I totally relate to her sentiment….if only they could stay cute, playful babies for longer. 

In terms of her parents, Anastasia’s mother works as a lab and animal technician at the University of North Dakota, and she actually also works in a neuroscience lab. Anastasia’s father is a vascular surgeon. Her father is one of her biggest inspirations in life. She cherishes the times she was younger when she would get to go into the hospital with her dad on “bring your daughter to work” days. At the hospital, Anastasia would love seeing her father’s office, talking to all the nurses, and doodling on the OR board (Grey’s Anatomy, anyone?). She felt a sense of pride seeing how much of a positive impact her dad was making on the lives of others. In addition, she really admires her father for his bravery. It is no easy task moving across the world to the United States from Moldova, leaving behind the familiarity of a previous life. Her father had to teach himself how to speak English fluently and build a good, stable life for his family along with his wife despite the many concomitant challenges. Anastasia strives to mirror her father’s perseverance in her own daily life, and he has certainly fostered in her a love for working in the field of healthcare and helping others. Speaking of helping others, one of the achievements that Anastasia is proudest of is recently becoming an ambassador for a local chapter of the Pinky Swear Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to spreading awareness about pediatric cancer and helping families of those affected through both emotional and financial support. Recently, she participated in an event hosted at her university where she created Valentines cards for the local children’s hospital. For her, the experience was deeply gratifying, as she was able to positively impact her community.

We are so lucky that Anastasia joined our team, and I wanted to learn more about why she decided to join School for a Village. Anastasia decided to join because S4V’s mission really resonates with her—she believes that education is a fundamental human right and that every person, no matter the demographic or socioeconomic status, should have access to educational material free of charge. Thus, she is excited to be part of an organization that aims to break down the barriers to quality STEM education in underserved communities around the world. She sincerely hopes that in the future, as efforts such as ours continue to engage in meaningful projects, providing access to education for everyone won’t seem like merely an unattainable ideal. In addition to equitable access to education, Anastasia is passionate about a multitude of other topics and has various extracurricular interests. One of her main passions that has really influenced her life is music. From day one, music has been a major motivator to her, and especially during challenging times in her life, listening to music has always been a therapeutic experience that has helped her cope and show fortitude in spite of her struggles. She is not only an avid music listener, but she has been playing piano for the past eight years and she has recently started learning how to play the guitar. For Anastasia, music is a constant in her life—a source of stress relief and happiness that she can always count on. She is currently saving up for an electric piano so she can continue to practice even when she is away at college.

While it’s certainly better to be interested in too many things than nothing at all, Anastasia has noted that her diversity in interests has made it difficult for her to settle on a particular career path. However, Anastasia has thought of her dream job, which would be a culmination of her various interests in writing, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and music. Ideally, she can envision herself doing research and teaching about the interplay between music and neuroscience/cognition. What’s exciting is that currently in the field of neuroscience, there has an increased focus on how music can potentially be a preventative strategy for a plethora of neurodegenerative disorders. Anastasia would one day love to contribute to this growing collection of fascinating, groundbreaking literature!

In her free time, along with playing the piano and guitar, Anastasia loves to read a good book. While she does not often get time to read for pleasure during the semester, she loves unwinding with a book on breaks and vacations. One of her favorite authors is Haruki Murakami, and she especially loves his book entitled After Dark. She loves Murakami because his writing flows so beautifully (even if a little of the original meaning is lost in translation from Japanese to English). She also loves to dance as a way to relieve stress and because it is the only form of cardio that is actually enjoyable (sooo much better than running). During the interview, we learned that we both grew up playing Just Dance on the Wii for hours with our siblings! If you have never played Just Dance, brace yourself for the workout of your life. Anastasia’s favorite subject is neuropsychology, and her number one favorite food would have to be chili, although she is a huge pizza fan too! We both bonded over how chili and cornbread together are the ultimate combination, and that sometimes the classics (like simple Margherita pizza) are the best.

Wrapping things up with two of the more difficult, yet interesting questions….When asked about which song she thinks describes her life, Anastasia chose “Hand in My Pocket” by Alanis Morissette. Whenever she listens to the lyrics, she feels as if they were written just for her—that is how much they resonate with her! The song describes being short, playing the piano, and just genuinely wanting peace and love in the world, all characteristics that Anastasia possesses. Oh wow, that is sounding like it’s describing me too….I guess I’ll have to give the song a listen! For the philosophy that inspires how she lives, Anastasia described that she is largely inspired by Buddhist philosophy. In particular, she resonates with its emphasis of protecting and caring for those that are less fortunate than us. She loves Buddhism’s promotion of peacefulness, love and compassion, and the achievement of inner peace through selfless acts. Even though I have only known Anastasia for a short amount of time, I can attest to the fact that she is successfully actualizing these values of compassion and kindness through her interactions with others!

Crazy to say, but that’s the end of our fifth spotlight story! We really are nearing the end, and I hope y’all are enjoying reading these as much as I am getting to interview my team members and learning so much more about them.