The STEM Demystified Digital Portal is now live, a new home for real STEM stories made for teachers, educators, and curious young learners. Built to make STEM feel closer, friendlier, and genuinely possible, the portal brings together global role‑model stories, interactive exploration, and classroom‑ready inspiration. It’s a growing resource designed to help children see themselves in STEM, and to give educators an easy way to bring real‑world representation into lessons. Explore the portal at stemdemystified.com.
Welcome to another edition of STEM Demystified, a project to tackle women under- representation in STEM. This weekly Newsletter will showcase how women are conquering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics worldwide.
Today Anastasiia Tsarenko is our STEM role model. Born in Ukraine, Anastasiia is a creative problem solver and an enthusiastic ambassador for Agile ways of working and Design Thinking. Her career journey has not been linear or straightforward.
In 2021, after navigating through different fields, she completed a master’s degree in Applied IT in Sweden where she currently lives and works as a Project Manager at Accenture. She is passionate about digital transformation as well as emerging technologies like Gen AI and XR. Let’s find out how Anastasiia journey has been so far.
What was your trajectory from school to where you currently are professionally or academically?
My journey wasn’t straightforward. I started with Travel Industry where I helped people arrange their vacations, then moved to business travel where supported entrepreneurs in running their businesses with China. I worked in this area for about 10 years.
This line of work was grounded on my Bachelor in International Business (with focus on Travel Industry) and then Masters in Management that I obtained in Ukraine, Kyiv here I’m coming from.
During these 10 years I learned a lot about the importance of people in all the processes. These 10 years built in me desire to zoom into psychology of people. So I went to the USA, Chicago, where I got my second Masters in Applied Psychology, my primary area of interest was how to empower people and support them in becoming best versions of self.
With this degree and expertise, I had two possible options – to continue as a clinical psychologist/psychotherapist, or to get PHD, become a researcher and work in academic environment. None of these options seemed appealing to me in the long run. I wanted to take my skills and knowledge acquired from my applied psychology career and transfer to business world.
I love my background from first two degrees – business and psychology. However, I had a strong sense that I am missing a very important layer that makes a huge different in modern world – IT. So, I decided to fill this gap by studying Masters in Sweden, Gothenburg where I got my Ms in Informatics.
As soon as I graduated from this program (in 2021), I joined Accenture and am part of this company for the last 2,5 years. I work on the intersection of people/business/IT – either as project manager or business analyst, currently with focus on Generative AI.
What motivated you to get into STEM? Did you have a female role model or anyone who inspired you? If so, who?
It was a genuine desire to work with technology – to use technology for making impact and transform our lives and ways of working. I am genuinely fascinated with emerging technologies – Extended Reality, Metaverse, Internet of Things, and Generative AI.
I love imagining how our future will look like when these technologies become mainstream. These ideas tap into my inner child, and I truly enjoy bringing these technologies to our lives.
What’s your most important professional or academic achievement?
Looking back, I’d say I am happy that I allowed myself these experimentations in my careers and I am proud that I dared to deviate from conventional straight-line approach.
Each of these deviations added a significand layer to my world perception. My profile now is very unconventional; however, I do see that I bring a lot of skills from previous experience that bring value to my current work and to people I work with.
Did you face any challenge throughout your professional/academic journey? How did you overcome it?
Of course, every journey that leads to growth is full of challenges. If we don’t experience challenges – we need to raise our ambitions. My approach is “no one is an island”. I identify role models, people I resonate with and learn from them and work with them.
I met many amazing, smart, bright, ambitious, talented people on my way, and I can confidently state that absolutely every challenge I had in my life I managed to overcome only thanks to those people who were by my side at every point of life.
In your opinion, what needs to be done to attract more women into STEM?
STEM should be demystified – exactly what you are trying to do Juliana. It should be presented as a spectrum where people with different mixes of talents are needed.
It’s OK to transition between careers and there are many transferrable skills that we can bring from non-STEM paths. Plus, if we look even deeper – we need to shape interest in STEM since childhood and develop hard skill in girls.
Soft skills and creativity come more naturally women, yet having hard skills in addition to soft skills opens unlimited possibilities and enormously increases quality of life during the lifespan due to multiple ways to self-actualize I this world. Developing hard skills in girls is an investment into their future irrespectively of what career path they choose at the end.
What advice would you give to anyone looking into a career in STEM (or those who do not consider it)?
I still remember the situation when I just started my Master in IT in Sweden. We had a social gathering where students from different programs were gathered for a joint event. And someone commented on groups of students who were learning something like literature, sociology, philosophy etc.: “these are the future unemployed people”. This sounds harsh, but that’s the reality we are living in. We need to be a bit more pragmatic in choosing how we spend our lives, and we need to think a little more long-term. It’s much easier to become a soft-skilled professional, yet much harder than to self- actualize if we check statistics. And the other way around – it’s harder to acquire hard skills, yet to add soft skills on top of hard skills to is always a bonus that is highly appreciated in professional world.
Anastasiia Tsarenko’s journey underscores the importance of embracing non-linear career paths and leveraging diverse skills to succeed in STEM. Her story highlights that combining expertise from various fields, such as business, psychology, and IT, can create a unique and valuable professional profile. By showcasing her own unconventional path, Anastasiia demonstrates that transitioning between careers and integrating transferable skills can lead to impactful and fulfilling roles in STEM.
This approach not only broadens the scope of opportunities for women but also enriches the STEM fields with diverse perspectives and talents. Empowering women in STEM requires challenging stereotypes and highlighting the significance of both technical and interpersonal skills. Encouraging a passion for STEM early on and developing strong technical skills in girls are essential investments.
