Meet our graduate, Iryna Tatarenko, editor-in-chief of PANORAMA magazine (UIA logbook). She has interviewed Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Fred Derts ("Limp Bizkit"), Catherine Deneuve, Mila Kunis and more.

And today she told us about her life during her student years, studies and shared her warmest memories.

Tell us about your journey after SSU

I moved to Kyiv and got a job first as a bank loan expert, after that as a publicist for a magazine, and later on as a publicist for an airline, but eventually went into journalism anyway. Because I always dreamed of this profession. I interviewed Ukrainian “Territory A” stars for school radio and wrote articles for a student newspaper.

So, when I found myself in Kyiv, I almost immediately wrote letters to the editors of my favorite magazines at the time, Cosmopolitan and Maxim. Of course, I was not answered. Because healthy ambitions are good, but they need to be backed up by experiences I haven't had. I was not upset though.

In parallel with my main work, I received my second higher education at the Shevchenko Institute of Journalism of the Kyiv National University and wrote for various magazines. I wrote a lot. I was inspired by stories about the hard work of famous authors. For example, Hunter S. Thompson, the father of gonzo journalism and the author of “Fear and Disgust in Las Vegas”, retyped on a typewriter "The Great Gatsby" and "Goodbye, Weapons!" to learn more about the writing styles of Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Truman Capote, who wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, since the age of 13 devoted two hours every day to writing in order to acquire his own style.

Please tell us about your student years. What were they like?

Wonderful, full of events and acquaintances, absolutely carefree and somewhat absurd - I think, like for most students. We took part in the Golden Integral and the KVN, arguing over whose turn it was to take “Economics” home from the library. Right before the exams, we ran to the railroad tracks to some Soviet monument of a man with a bullet (maybe, a "ball", probably Earth) in his hands and rubbed our record books on it, saying: "Freebies, come." We slept with our lecture notes under the pillow, because according to the "legend", it helps. However, I do not know for what? To earn insomnia - yes, to master the material - no.

What are the most interesting and difficult things in student life?

The most interesting thing is to use the opportunities that are everywhere to move towards the dream. Thanks to Sumy State University, I had a chance to develop my journalistic skills during my studies. I wrote articles for the student newspaper “Resonance”. After graduating from university, however, I never reread my publications to be honest. I know that I will be ashamed of texts that I once considered cool and even tried to argue with the university editor.

The most difficult thing, both in student and in adult life is to set priorities and determine what is important and what is secondary. To do not lose faith in oneself and go towards one’s own dreams. Well, if you can't GO towards your dream, you must at least lie down in its direction. (Smiles.)

Which subject did you like the most?

I generally like to study. I think as long as a person needs knowledge – he or she has a chance to become a better version of himself/herself. (Smiles.) What I liked most were the subjects directly related to my specialty, management. I was lucky - my teacher of management was Oleg Fedorovich Balatsky, a world-class scientist. Each lecture was not like a usual class, it was necessary to "switch on your brain" and use knowledge from various fields to come up with the best solution for the task and predict the development of the situation a few steps ahead. This is something that helped me a lot in life and in my profession.

Who do you still remember best?

I remember every teacher well enough. Because these were meetings with wonderful and talented people, infinitely in love with their profession.

I remember with what inspiration and subtle irony Arkadii Yurievich Zhulavsky spoke about important economic indicators and calculations. And God forbid you forget to subtract to the fourth digit after the comma at least some of the indicators of enterprise profitability.

 I also remember that Hannah Oleksandrivna Shvindina welcomed creativity in management, saying: "It is creativity that allows a manager to go beyond the familiar and find new unique solutions and original ideas."

I remember how Oleksandr Mykhailovych Telizhenko set a condition that he would give final marks only to those students who read Orwell's “1984” and Yerofeyev's “Moscow-Petushki”. I read both books. These are very powerful works. Orwell appeared to be not my thing. But the poem "Moscow-Petushki" became a cult in my student company. On the same level with Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” and Pelevin's “Chapayev and the Void”. We quoted them. My friend even drew the cover for “Moscow-Petushki” himself before returning the book to Oleksandr Mykhailovych - that's how in love we were with this book.

I shared the story of my "book test" with a well-known Kharkiv publisher once and he said that he had the honor to be present at the author's meeting with Venedikt Yerofeyev. Due to his illness, the writer had an iron tube in his throat, and when he read excerpts from "Moscow-Petushki" his voice had an unusual metallic echo. I later found these recordings on the internet to listen to them. Although, I prefer to listen to this poem performed by Shnurov.

What did studying at FEM give you?

Now I work as the editor-in-chief of Panorama, if you use UIA airlines, we meet with you from time to time. (Smiles.) The editor-in-chief's job is not about writing, creativity and parties, it's about pure crisis management. Because, in addition to planning, forecasting and achieving goals, you must be prepared for an unforeseen situations at each stage of issue preparation, which has a clear format, strict deadlines and many other details - the solution of which you must anticipate in advance.

Your wishes to teachers and students of FEM.

To students – “gather yourself" and take advantage of the amount of time that you have to study. The formula "who did not waste his studenthood, did indeed waste it" - does not work. You now have many options and you need to not lose this chance. Be greedy for knowledge and acquaintances. Oh wait… whom do I speak to, you still will not believe me! (Laughs.)

To teachers - have less tolerance to student laziness. And more patience for lack of life experience. Even if we, students, are behaving unbearably right now, the time will come, and we will remember you with gratitude. Tested on my own experience. (Smiles.)