Maya Deren was born Eleonora Derenkowsky in Kiev in 1917. Her father was a psychiatrist. In 1922 the family emigrated to America and settled in Syracuse, New York. Maya was educated at the League of Nations School in Switzerland, at Syracuse and New York universities, and at Smith College, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in literature in 1938. While still a student at Syracuse, she devoted her energies to the underground socialist movement. As her fascination for photography and film grew, her talent for organization and persuasion was re-channeled.