Somewhere, in a library, a woman lounges with a notebook and a pen. She is jotting down a list of business ideas, tucked into the forgotten crevices of her mind. Somewhere, on top of a mountain, a woman leans against stone, the same notebook in her hands. This time, she scribbles the last lines of a stanza, the poem’s rhythm building to a crescendo of syllables. Somewhere, across the world, a woman packs her bags for tomorrow’s flight. A few weeks into her travels, she befriends an elderly artist who tells her stories about culture and life.
This woman is Sasha Temerte, who seeks to understand humanity and the world around her.
Born in Uzbekistan with Russian, Greek, and Korean roots, Sasha has always engaged in a balancing act of culture fusion. This identity crisis was only ever furthered by her love of all subject fields.
Since high school and beyond, Sasha has thought herself to be a weaver of numbers and words as she struggled to reconcile her love for writing and STEM. She was president of multiple self-started clubs as she strived to enact her many interests into tangible organizations. After joining Syracuse University as a Coronat Scholar, Sasha began pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, along with a Bachelor of Arts in Writing and Rhetoric at the College of Arts and Sciences.
Driven by wanderlust and curiosity about the world beyond her Pennsylvania home, Sasha spent her first semester abroad in Spain. Following this experience, she quickly picked up a Spanish minor. The hunger for travel and connection had become insatiable, taking her from merely hiking the American West to now ordering mint tea on the coast of Morocco. Dreaming of an international MBA, Sasha then took on a Strategic Management minor through the Martin J. Whitman School of Management to fill in the more technical gaps in her knowledge of business.
This scattered combination of passions often results in some raised eyebrows and questioning looks, but it allows Sasha to do what she loves most: explore. Whether she is exploring the gears of our economy, the numbers behind effective leadership, or the precise combination of words that will evoke a flood of emotions in readers, Sasha is happy to keep her schedule packed with learning.
Sasha is heavily involved on campus as well. She has worked as a Copy Editor and a Communications Manager for Globalists, a publication that focuses on stories of culture and identity, which closely collaborates with the LaunchPad. She is also now an inaugural Orange Ambassador for the Syracuse University Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars, where she brings the stories of fellow innovators and entrepreneurs to light. Eleven 2020 – 2021 Orange Ambassador roles were generously funded through a personal gift from Todd R. Rubin ’04, School of Architecture.
In her free time, Sasha constantly initiates new writing projects. In 2018, Sasha published her poetry debut, Peace and Other Radical Ideas, which offers a riveting look into society to encourage social change. Last semester, Sasha kickstarted Between the Lines, a blog where she interviewed people on their innermost thoughts, life philosophies, and transformational moments to bring the story of raw human experience to life. She is currently working on a myriad of other poetry and prose works that she hopes to publish in the upcoming years.
Although writing is now her touchstone, this love of words began with ferocious reading habits. Sasha currently spends numerous hours reading books that she hopes will equip her to soon pursue larger-scale entrepreneurship and launch her own business.
That venture is yet to fully evolve, but somewhere, in a notebook, Sasha is already plotting her next big idea. We are looking to help her bring it to life in the LaunchPad.
To contact Sasha or to learn more about her recent projects, check out her LinkedIn.