Roman is a co-founder of GarageHub. He is a brilliant engineer and project organizer, he led CACTUS camps in Ukraine and created a platform (an actual physical space) for people to build stuff. Denys talked with him about this, as well as his year in the US, an older sister who was an exchange student before him, and on monetizing culture. Listen now!

00:01 Preview

01:30 Having an older sister – also a FLEX alumna – as a role model. Identically great host families

08:57 Roman’s (and Lena’s) background; 4 trips to the US

12:13 One of the youngest FLEX participants

14:40 Advice to an introvert?

17:05 Integrating into a host community within an urbanized area next to Cleveland

22:10 Learning community service and serendipity

30:36 European Youth Parliament (EYP), Peace Corps in Ukraine, and “a hell of a difficult year of 2014”

34:22 Starting in a garage and turning it into Garage Hub

38:21 Garage Hub 2.0 – in search of sense (with USAID: UCBI)

42:38 Garage Hub 3.0 – in search of form and surviving the end of the world

46:20 Closing tips for participants of exchange students

48:15 - outro

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This episode is supported by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine. The views of the authors and guests do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Government.