Help Ukrainian Student Daryna Achieve Her College Dreams

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.

Check my website to get more information https://darynausa.com/

The roadblock of my plan: money. My family simply can't afford U.S. education costs, so I've taken full responsibility for shaping my future despite the financial challenges.

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. Also, this summer I am joining the MIT Summer Geometry Initiative to research 3D processing and ML for 3D reconstruction.

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.

Why De Anza Community College?

I chose De Anza, because it’s a well-known Silicon Valley institution where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak studied, with a strong transfer rate to UC Berkeley, MIT, and Stanford, universities with the leading math programs in America. As an international student, in community college I'd be considered domestic for university transfer, avoiding a fight against the whole world for spots if I applied directly from abroad.

This path gives me the best shot at reaching top research universities where I can develop the skills Ukraine desperately needs.

My Vision for Ukraine's Future:

I want to modernize Ukrainian education by creating labs with top-notch technology. We need to move from the post-Soviet model that requires graduate degrees before research participation. After the war, Ukraine will need professionals with practical skills to rebuild immediately.

I've seen how our academic system holds back talented youth. When I approached professors about research opportunities, they said, "Get your master's degree first." But with AI accelerating science so rapidly, waiting four years for a piece of paper feels like a relic of the past.

How You can help me:

Your donation will help me cover college expenses for my first year at De Anza Community College.

Every contribution brings me closer to:

Enrolling at De Anza Community College this fall

Transferring to a top research university by spring 2026

Developing the expertise to rebuild Ukrainian technology and education

Share, tell, write, repost – I value every form of support!

I'm always open to chat about my projects, dreams, or how we can work together.

Since GoFundMe doesn't allow direct transfers to Ukraine (it's an "unsupported country"), my former teacher Laker Newhouse helped me to create this campaign for me and will transfer the funds. That's why it shows "on behalf of Laker Newhouse."

Thank you for believing in me!