Orynbay Aruzhan,3 Group

Exchange programs create opportunities for participants to learn about a new country and its nation, develop interpersonal skills, and work with people from different cultural backgrounds. It is common to say that exchange programs create future leaders who appreciate international collaboration, tolerance and empathy.

Above all that, I see this W&T program as a way to challenge myself and see what I am capable of. Living and working in another country with strangers is like forcing myself into the most uncomfortable situations and adventures possible.

But I choose to do it myself because we can only grow when we are out of our comfort zone.

I also do not think that the grass is always greener on the other side, I won’t be in the US screaming about how everything is great there and bad at home. I believe that there are pros and cons to each side and the best we can do as countries are to share our experiences and grow together as nations.

What I plan to learn from this trip is hard work, I plan to mature, get more physically developed, and become more outgoing. I want to hear funny or not-so-funny life stories from my coworkers, my boss, and strangers I will meet along the way.

Why do I want to experience hard work?

I think most of my life I was pretty privileged. I studied in a nice private school, I got to do different sports and hobbies. My friends always had what they wanted, they never had to work for it. So when I got my first job two years ago, it turned my life upside down. I was looking for a job because I was bored in summer, and my coworkers- kids my age would work 12-hour shifts because they needed that money. I learned how to appreciate what was given to me, I learned to appreciate people’s work and my life as it is.

When I told my friend from university I am going to participate in W&T. He said “Are you kidding me? You are spending all your time studying computer science just to go the US and wash dishes there?!”. I realized how privileged and arrogant some people can be and how I would never want to have that kind of perception of life and arrogancy towards people who do hand work like washing

dishes.

So for me, the W&T program is not just a way to spend a crazy summer far away from my parents.

It is a way to teach myself a lesson one more time, learn discipline, learn the work ethic of another nation, and give myself the motivation to keep studying and be grateful for everything that I have.

In the near future, I would like to finish my Bachelor's degree and get my Master's and Doctorate degrees while practising and working as a software engineer. But most importantly I would like to be a researcher and teach at my university(KBTU) as my role model Pakizar Shamoi. Pakizar teaches my Object Oriented Programming course right now at KBTU and is the greatest Professor I ever came across during these 2 years of college. Pakizar got her PhD in Japan and I feel like it is an important part of her journey that I want to experience too. I think a lot of her work ethic and dedication comes from people she met in Japan and the obstacles she had to overcome to get there.

That is why I want to experience other nations’ cultures, work systems, their educational system like my role model did. I want to learn networking and I feel like spending a summer in the US would help to develop the soft and hard skills that I need to achieve my ambitious goals. It would give me more experience of living abroad that I will need if I will get my Master's or PhD abroad.

Hopefully in future when I will teach at KBTU I will be able to tell my students stories about me travelling across the US and other countries like Pakizar does in her lectures.

Talking about the culture of my country, I want to talk about our youth. About how many talents from Kazakhstan are now in comedy, music, cinema and technology? I would tell them about Moldanazar, whose music I adore, Aisultan Seitov and his recent movie «Қаш», about Sanzhar Taizhan and his electric vehicle. I myself want to become an example of a good work ethic, diligence, responsiveness, and intelligence. I want to show the photos that I managed to take in Kazakhstan, in such places as Big Almaty Lake, Kolsai, Kaindy, Sharyn Canyon, Mangystau Plateau, Borovoye, etc. Just make sure that the talents and beauty of our motherland are being talked about and proud of.

I hope such exchange programs as W&T will get more and more awareness and popularity in future in Kazakhstan. If I could I would make it possible and accessible for students to get internships abroad and practice what we learn while getting our degrees. That way Kazakhstan would get many qualified specialists with international experience.

I would like to thank the administration of the International Exchange Center for giving us such opportunities! Thank you for reading my story and supporting us with such сompetions as this.