Writing has always been a strong suit of Yelena Melnichenko. “It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. Even when I was little I’d write short stories for my teachers and create mystery novels.” Intrigued by the research that surrounded the mystery, the process of solving crimes always caught her eye. I asked if police work was something she would be interested in, maybe something like CSI. She responded with an abrupt “NO” she can’t stand even the thought of blood.

“I’ve always wanted to pull my writing together with photography. I’d done some photography over the years at centers for events but nothing too serious and I hope to get back into it.” Her strenuous school schedule has drawn her away from her love of photography. Ideally she wants to one day pursue a career that can tie together both her love for writing and photography. We spoke briefly about occupations that bring both worlds together, after some thought she said that an internship at somewhere like NatGeo would be an ideal introduction into the industry.

Something that many people may not know about Yelena is that she is actually an immigrant to this country from the Ukraine. In 1997 she moved to the US while she was in first grade. She was forced to take ESL when she first arrived although after only a month of tutoring, she not only placed out of the class but was told that her reading surpassed most of her peers. She claims that it has to do with reading and writing always being one of her hobbies although I can’t help but think it’s more than that. I also have many friends that immigrated to this country from foreign places. They are all bi or tri -lingual, rather than my American peers who primarily only speak English. We went on to speak about the difference in the educational system there and here, what I found was that foreign language is stressed more so in other countries than it is here. Yes, we might offer Spanish, French, even at some schools languages like Chinese or Latin but the fashion in which it is taught is much different. The curriculum is more strenuous, the assignments are more in depth, and the cultural standard is that you should without a doubt speak more than one language.

Yelena was a classmate of mine that I did not get to know too much inside of class, although when we got the chance to speak I was pleasantly surprised with everything I found out. I’m always interested to hear about my peers, especially when they’re from somewhere I’m not to familiar with. I’m going to take Yelena’s advice and “take the time to look into the details,” to learn more about her culture and where she hails from.