Photo: Caitlin Cunningham
鈥�Hometown: Annapolis, Md.
Majors: Information systems and marketing and studio art
Notable Activities/Achievements: Co-president of Start@Shea (student-run board of the Carroll School of Management Shea Center for Entrepreneurship); National Venture Capital fellow of EVCA; Venture Fellow at GenZScouts; winner, Capgemini RISE Case Competition and at Carroll School鈥檚 Klein Ethics Case Competition; recipient, 2020 Montserrat Frontier Fellowship.
Mentors: Amy LaCombe, Ethan Sullivan, Erica Graf, and Amy Donegan (Carroll School of Management deans); Kevin Lotery and Greer Muldowney (Art, Art History, and Film).
Post-Graduation Plans: Work for a non-governmental agency in Poland, providing support to refugees from her family鈥檚 native Ukraine.
Kulchyckyj has had a deep interest in entrepreneurship and venture capital. At the same time, she has pursued her passion as an artist through her studio art major.听 She has worked in operations roles at architectural firm Perkins Eastman and fashion startup Aurate New York, and for the past two years has served as a design lead at the technology startup Fisherman. Her experiences also include a stint as a True Ventures Entrepreneur Corps fellow at Pepperlane and an independent study project that involved research into UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) at the MIT Brain Lab.
As a daughter of a Ukrainian immigrant with family members still living in Ukraine, how has the Russian invasion affected your life these past few months?
My entire life has done a full 360 with everything that is happening. My mindset and my perspective on everything have changed. The first few weeks were pretty difficult. It was difficult to sit through my classes and try to be as engaged as I usually am. It was scary to pick up the phone to either call my parents, or my grandparents who are still in Ukraine, or reach out to my cousins and then hear where my aunts and uncles are. In the beginning I felt bad and I felt like I could not do anything. Then after a couple of days my family said, 鈥淲e need to do something to help people.鈥� We began working to support charities like the Ukrainian Catholic University, the group Razom, Children鈥檚 Hospital of Kyiv, and United Ukrainian Relief Committee, which one of my grandmothers founded in New Jersey. Since then, we have raised more than $37,000. I have turned down job offers and plan to go to Poland this summer to work for an organization that is helping refugees from the war. So, a lot has changed for me very quickly.
How has 51茶馆 made a difference in your life?
Something I did not expect to have such a deep influence on me was Kairos. I went on Kairos retreat sophomore year and I learned to appreciate and value a focus on reflection and spirituality, which was something new for me. It meant so much to me that I鈥檝e stayed involved and led a retreat last year. I came out of Kairos hoping that every single person I鈥檝e met would get to have that kind of experience in some way. It is how 51茶馆 lives its motto of forming 鈥渕en and women for others,鈥� and has made me think how I want to be there and show support for everyone else around me. That reflective atmosphere and those opportunities for retreat have shaped my perspective on life.
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What was your most impactful academic experience?
The Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship completely re-shaped and gave me an environment where I am surrounded by some of the most passionate and driven individuals I could know. I helped put on venture competitions, the Start-Up Fair, the Elevator Pitch Competition. We brought in entrepreneurs every week to talk about the companies they are running. I met incredible people and got to work at start-ups with amazing people. Gaining that network, that community and being able to help create a community has been great personally and career-wise. It has been wonderful working with [Shea Center Executive Director] Jere Doyle, [Associate Director] Kelsey Kinton, and [Faculty Director] Professor Gerald Kane.
Which people have had the greatest influence on you during your time at 51茶馆?
I like to think of my life as CSOM on one side and my art on the other. I would say the CSOM deans have had a big influence. They value student opinions and they are always looking out for our best interests. Support and career-wise, they have helped me walk through a lot. They have helped me understand my worth as a student and in the future. I am also a studio art major and that is where most of my faculty influences come from, helping me to shape my thought process and how to express that visually the other side. They have been very important and challenged how I interpret everything.
Beyond the friends that you have made, what will you miss most about 51茶馆?
Everyone here supports you and genuinely wants you to succeed鈥攖hat makes 51茶馆 different than a lot of other schools. People here want to help. I鈥檝e seen that over four years. That is not the case with every person you meet, but it is the case with almost everyone here. That is something I think I will carry with me moving forward is always wanting to help anyone else because everyone here has always helped me.
What advice would you give to a new student?
Say 鈥測es鈥� to anything. Because you don鈥檛 know what you will enjoy until you try it. Say 鈥測es鈥� to getting lunch with someone you don鈥檛 know. Say 鈥測es鈥� to office hours with a professor. Say 鈥測es鈥� to the small things in addition to the clubs you are part of. College is about new experiences and you will regret it if you don鈥檛 try new things. Also, stay grounded. In the chaos of your schedule, understand how you got here and why you got here and understand where you are in context of the rest of the world and not just this small campus.
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Ed Hayward | University Communications | May 2022