NARYIAANA GRIGOREVA

ASPIRE 2030,
Youth Advocate

Naryiaana Grigoreva is someone very passionate in using mathematics as a tool to create change in the real world. Her priorities in life are self-actualization, constant development and a healthy lifestyle.

She was born and spent the first two years of her life in Yakutsk, the coldest city in the world. For the first four years of her life, she spoke only the Yakut language, and after that she started speaking Russian. Sometimes she didn't understand why she needed to know her native language and in general something about Yakutsk since she lived in Moscow. It even got to the point that she deliberately forgot and did not use the Yakut language. However, around the age of 10, she was forcibly sent to her grandmother's native village for a month of summer. No one speaks Russian there, and if they do, it's with a strong accent. There was no choice there and she had to learn everything all over again. After this trip, she began to feel more confident, and she demonstrated to her Moscow-based friends about her knowledge of Yakut. Bilingualism really helped her expand the boundaries of her brain and also helped her embrace her heritage. 

Growing up, from 2nd to 9th grade, she studied in Moscow at the 2 x 2 Creative Laboratory, and she successfully completed a course in public speaking. She is the winner for the regional stage of the All-Russian Olympiad for Schoolchildren in Mathematics and Economics, and also for municipal computer science and physics (2020). She has attended math retreats every year of school to study and since 9th grade she has worked as a retreat tutor, organizing elementary school olympiads and checking the answers. In addition, she is very interested in school spirit: she is a Vice-President of International Arctic School and founder of the school's volunteer organization which decides on and designs activities based on peer-to-peer feedback. 

In her free time, she likes to dance at caverdance club. She is fond of reading, website layout and fashion, and she is a taekwondo enthusiast. She has loved traveling since childhood and has been to 14 countries. To see the world is her main goal, as well as making her own path in the world. 

When asked about her future plans, Naryiaana believes that greater global awareness of mathematical sciences are vital to addressing challenges in areas such as artificial intelligence, climate change, energy and sustainable development. As such, in order to improve the quality of life in both the developed and the developing worlds, she aims to pursue mathematics at university, with an emphasis on applied mathematics towards resolving the most pressing issues facing her community in Yakutsk and beyond.