Angela Busheska: Mathematician, engineer and founder of a sustainable fashion app

And with computer science or engineering, you can scale your solutions to millions. Honestly, I see myself as a kid in a chocolate factory. I think STEM can really help a large part of the world’s population.

When you were a child, before you fully explored this world before you, what was your hope? What was your childhood dream job?

I once told my mother I would become the director of NASA!

So your NASA dream isn’t that far from where you are. What do you want to do now?

Now I think the challenge is to help fight climate change because it is an emergency. It can’t wait.

Which woman inspires you right now?

Oh, so I really admire a lot of people. Even if it’s not STEM, one person who really inspired me, I met her at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards this year, was Zendaya. We talked about spreading her message for fast fashion.

I’m also part of the Neo Scholars community, where I see a lot of women starting companies. So these women, even if they’re not — they’re very small startups right now — seeing firsthand how they’re building startups is also very inspiring.

In a sense, you’ve made thousands of miles of progress, so how can you celebrate that?

Honestly, I’m not very good at celebrating myself. But one thing is that I never say “no” to something that I get to do for the first time. For example, this is my second summer in New York and I got to see a Broadway show for the first time.

I really love my time and I try to use it as much as possible. When I see an opportunity to do something, I take it. Traveling is a big thing for me, maybe even a chance to go home for Christmas and see my friends and family. I am really grateful to my parents, especially my mom, because she sacrificed everything for me. She didn’t work. She was a stay-at-home mom, so I hope I paid back everything she did for me.

What are you most proud of in your work?

Well, I would say three things. First, getting accepted to the US. That was my biggest dream. Second, scaling a nonprofit and talking to millions of people around the world. I started it really as a joke, as a project in high school, and seeing it survive four years later, I discovered my passion in a very interesting way. I never looked for it. I just started a project.

And third, seeing miracles. None of this was planned. It was all just because I followed my curiosity and tried to ask….

I’ve had millions of failures along the way. So maybe I pride myself on trying to take advantage of every opportunity and every time I fail, I try to understand why I failed and how to continue.

Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Green Carpet Fashion Awards