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      Meet Natalia Kukushkina, SR2, West Beaverton Toastmasters, District 7's 2022-23
      International Speech Champion. Her powerful speech, Russians, won the hearts of the
      judges with its emotional and timely  message. She is competing for a regional spot on her

      way to the finals at the Toastmasters International Convention in the Bahamas this August.






      Please share your background                            gymnastics, acting and music. I attended music
          Originally, I am from Russia and was born           school for 8 years playing cello, piano, and I sang
      and raised in the town named Norilsk located as         in a choir. After my graduation from music school,

      far in the North as you can imagine. Far North is       I sang in a girl band with my friends (a lot like
      really an amazing place: I saw polar lights, polar      The Andrews Sisters trio).
      night, and polar day, extremely low temperatures,           When I turned 17, I moved to the city of Nizhny
      the original house of Chuckchi (one of the native       Novgorod (it is about a four hour drive from

      tribes in the north), and the most unique thing         Moscow) to study Mathematics and Computer
      - the first Sun appearance after 6 months of the        Science at the State University. The education I
      polar night.                                            received changed the way I thought, perceived
          As a child I had many interests: ice skating,       information and, most importantly, it taught me




       6      ONE COMMUNITY
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