Mariya K.

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARIYA K.

My professional experiences range from disinformation research, open-source investigations, transnational crime investigations, and research to refugee assistance, non-profit work, and advocacy. I am particularly interested in the role of technology and social interactions in context, such as impact of the spread of disinformation online on offline violence, diplomatic failures, and lack of peace. I hold a master\'s degree in International Security Policy from Columbia SIPA with minors in conflict resolution and technology and a Bachelor\'s degree from UC Berkeley in Global Studies: Peace and Conflict and concentrated in the Middle Eastern Studies. More context and background: My passion for human rights, social equity, and peace comes from my own story. At the age of seventeen, I immigrated from Ukraine to the United States alone. This experience revealed to me the disparities among communities and social groups in the United States and worldwide. While consciously realizing how privileged I was compared to my friends in Ukraine having had this opportunity, upon arrival, I experienced the reality of social inequality and civil injustice. Nevertheless, my language skills provided me a considerable advantage over other immigrants and allowed me to easily access state services, such as college education. Furthermore, because I could afford the advances of communications technology, my parents were always there, in the screen of my smartphone, which is a luxury that many immigrants do not have. My parents always taught me that happiness comes from making people around you happy. Peoples\' experiences that I have witnessed while living in diverse communities, in Ukraine, in the United States, or in Greece, where I volunteered with homeless refugees, drive my passion to combat injustice and fight for social equity and human rights. As soon as I settled down, I dedicated my time to learn more about international affairs, policy, and injustice that happens in the world as well as volunteered all my free time to assist people locally and globally through my research and internships.