Personal Biography:Born in St. Petersburg, Russia to Sergei Roshenko, a construction worker, and Helena Roshenko, a clerical worker for the city government. He was born two months premature, and spent the first three months of his life in a hospital neonatal unit. Always smaller than this peers, he endured a childhood of constant bullying and condescension. Consequently, he developed a strong independent streak. He also became quite comfortable with, and adept at moving in, small spaces; which he often scrambled into or through to escape the neighborhood bullies. Fascinated by his father’s construction work, he would go to his father’s work sites after school and watch the workers with rapt attention. When he reached his teen years, he applied for work as a construction helper; but was turned away by the foreman due to his size. Fortunately, the project manager took notice of his interest, and offered to show him the technical side of the business. With the manager’s tutoring, Yuri developed a talent for the planning and engineering that goes into construction projects. Around the same time, Yuri’s father decided his son should start standing up to the bullies and defending himself, instead of running away. He found and enrolled Yuri in a martial arts facility where the instructor would teach Yuri techniques that complemented his reflexes and flexibility, and countered his small stature and modest strength. After graduation from high school, his “tutor” recommended Yuri for an engineering program at the local university. Continuing to excel in school, Yuri rose to the challenges of the program and frequently put in extra hours on class projects. He also continued his martial arts education, seeking out instructors in various forms that emphasized defensive techniques. He also joined the university’s martial arts team; competing in mixed martial arts tournaments. During a senior year job fair at the university, he wound up talking with a Starfleet representative about engineering opportunities in outer space. While the recruiter was skeptical of Yuri’s chances of meeting Starfleet’s physical enlistment standards, he was impressed enough by Yuri’s educational record to make an extra effort on his behalf. Though he barely met the height and weight requirements for Starfleet enlistment, Yuri’s determination, recommendations from instructors to contacts at Starfleet Academy, and the extra effort by the recruiter allowed Yuri to graduate from the university with not only his Engineering degree, but an acceptance to Starfleet Academy’s engineering program, where he concentrated on structural instead of starship engineering. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
