Sasha
Leahovcenco
humanitarian, entrepreneur & photographer
Sasha Leahovcenco is a humanitarian, entrepreneur and photographer. He was born in USSR. Moldova to be exact. Which is known to be the poorest country in Europe. At the age of 5, Sasha started practicing martial arts in which he excelled quickly. And by the age of 12 he won numerous national championships and was invited to represent his country at the World Cup in Rimini, Italy, where he won the gold medal, becoming one of the youngest persons in his country to do so. He continued competing and wining national and international championships, including the World Cup in 2004, where he brought home 2 silver medals.
While excelling in sports and competitions, Sasha also worked hard in school achieving good marks which led him to be invited to do an opening speech at the WWII memorial in the capital of Moldova alongside the president, prime minister and other high officials of the country. At the age of 16 Sasha started working for Athletes in Action. He spent 4 years organizing sports events in Moldova and participating in international projects all over Europe.
“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
– anne frank
After graduating, Sasha left to the US to pursue his bachelors degree in finances. This is where his journey into the world of photography began. When he started looking for an on campus job at FPU to help pay tuition he quickly realized that all positions aside from the sports photographer for the athletic department were already filled. Not wasting time, he picked up a camera, snapped some photos and sent them to his brother in law, Ross for editing. As soon as he submitted the shots he got the job and found himself googling “DSLR Camera for dummies”.
eventually, photography took sasha all over the world
While working on his personal projects he always sought and took opportunities to work for different nonprofit organizations. Traveling to Chukotka (the northern most part of Russia) to Haiti, Central America, the Middle East and several countries in Africa, Sasha covered stories of the earthquake in Haiti, the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine and the Syrian and Lebanese refugee crisis. His personal projects led him to discover the love of commercial photography where he had the opportunity to photograph various pro athletes and musicians.