The story below was collected during a Most Significant Change evaluation and was selected as the most significant change in the domain of "Change in Job/Career."
“Discovering America, Discovering Me”
Tynchtykbek Zhanadylov, Kyrgyzstan
2007-08, Graceland University
When I was writing my application essay, I wrote that I want to become a diplomat and work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I had really great ambitions to become the President of Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, we have a perception that in order to change something you need to become a deputy or president, that unless you do, you don’t have any opportunity to help your country, to help yourself. Then I went to the U.S. for UGRAD. I was 20 years old. And in that one year, I changed a lot.
I did my internship at the Kyrgyzstan embassy to the U.S. in DC. When I was helping the Kyrgyz ambassador, I was fixing their computers. They had consular affairs and were registering citizens to their database by pen. I said, “Maybe you could put it in Access or Excel and put it on the Internet.” And they told me to go ahead, and I did it. My enthusiasm was there. I figured out I don’t want to be a diplomat or the president. I just loved computers, IT, and technologies. So I discovered, in America, myself.
America is a place of great social media websites, like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. I bought my first laptop during black Friday and camped for twelve hours. My university asked me to do a video for freshmen. I really loved that technology.
After my UGRAD program I worked for three years as a Training Officer for an IT project for IREX Kyrgyzstan. Right now, I work as IT Education Trainer and I’m one of the few trainers of IT in the Kyrgyz language. In America I came to the conclusion that you don’t need to be a president to solve problems. Just think globally, act locally, as somebody said. Also, in America I discovered that I really love my country. Before, I said I would go to America and be happy, and I would just stay there. But there I understood I want to come back to my country and be useful to my nation.
Right now I’m the founder of Bilimkemi Academy, recording and putting online for free more than 700 video lessons in the Kyrgyz language. I heard about the Khan Academy in the U.S., and I really like that academy and right now we have really great resources in KG. I am the first person from Central Asia to be a Google Certified Teacher. As you see, this program helped me a lot and for right now I’m acting locally, and thinking globally, and helping my people.