I was born and grew up in the city of Aktobe, located in the western region of Kazakhstan. Currently, I am a second-year student at Kudaibergen Zhubanov Regional University. As someone from a hospitable and cohesive society, travelling and understanding a culture is always the topic of my interest that makes me aware of my community as well as other communities that are different to mine. I, therefore, devote my spare time to exploring various community related things that allow me immersive experience in relevance to this.
As someone in the growing up phase in life, a youth, I have had travelled a few parts of my country and developed an unyielding desire for a Student Exchange Program recently. As far as now, I have no success at such an opportunity. Although not being fortunate enough, I see the student exchange program as a very beneficial chapter that a person can experience in their university episode of life. It is indeed a remarkable opportunity to be a participant in the phase. Having the access to such a program would possibly be a once in a lifetime opportunity to better my knowledge in many things, ideally, the cultures thousands of miles away and a global level confidence and knowledge on many things.
Throughout my lifetime, I travelled within the country on several occasions, on various purposes: to visit friends, to study, comprehending various cultural elements, as well as for adventure and unwinding. In my opinion, I believe travelling is part of a transition to adulthood; enhancing the knowledge of surroundings, possibly the most efficient route in gaining immense knowledge of the world of things and culture. In a nutshell, I regard this as an expansion of the education process to acquaint myself with numerous unknown. Of course, there are no particular definitions of youth traveling, my opinion as it is.
One of my most recent travelling episode that I would like to share herein is my travel in 2022. A youth travelling program organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, where I went to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis, to participate in a forum. The length of the trip was very short, about 3 days. I went there along with others, mostly my friends and some strangers of my age; we were not accompanied by our parents. What was the most interesting there that it was my first time on a plane. As I walked up the ramp to the entrance of the plane, the butterflies came in the pit of my stomach. A strong and strange sensation of agitation appeared in me. It was as if my legs would collapse at any moment of that time. This is notably the experience which I could never forget. Oh! Good heavens!
Little did I know that I was scared of heights until the plane took off. Aargh! Not only that, it was my first-time unaccompanied travel, too. The nervousness and fear cast over my eyes to the deep in my soul. Never before the state of my mind and soul had gone through such feelings as I bordered the plane. In order to boost myself out of this, rolled my eyes and I said with a teeny-weeny smile to my own feelings: get out of my way! Interestingly enough, it worked! Little time after, I felt more comfortable by being there than ever before. All the negativities were replaced with positivity, so were the feelings and emotions that I had.
The most astonishing part of the experience so far was yet to happen; the discovery of my plane seat. Zoinks! Holy Smokes! Luckily enough, my seat was reserved by the window. From there I could enjoy the absolutely fantastic panoramic view of the downtown of my hometown. A captivating, magnificent photographic look that filled my heart with happiness; thrilling. Never seen before views were just before my eyes. While I was looking at those views, I remembered the memories that was the present just minutes ago. My parents; and how we came to the airport and stayed together until my check-in. Remembering those memories prompted me to thinking about the past, the recent and future achievements, a heart full of smiles and joy appeared before my eyes. All fears and nervousness of the past and present were replaced with something rather the opposite, but positive. I fell asleep! Had a little nap.
Soon after, a smooth chime of a Song Thrush sunk through my ears. Heard the voice of my surroundings like the voices from the glassed box. Slowly and slowly, the sound became louder and louder. There came the point: I woke up from the nap. I saw the joy on my friends’ faces and heard all sorts of jokes they came up with and listen to our favorite music together. After all the entertainment and giggles, we finally reached our destination and took part in the activities that we came for.
During the time of my stay there, we lived in the hotels and on a regular basis I called taxis to my hotel. Along the way, we talked about Almaty with the taxi drivers and gained a lot of local knowledge about the unknown, particularly the regional culture and normality in there, despite I myself as a Kazakhstani. It was wholly a fascinating experience that may help me in the coming years. Of course, there were also profoundly funny moments. For example, in West Kazakhstan, we speak a different dialect than Almaty. For this reason, many people in Almaty would immediately know that I am from the West by looking at my manner of speaking. While the people of Almaty speak politely and are not so straightforward; we on the contrary, are straightforward and bit more honest when speaking to another person. Living in Kazakhstan and having such peculiarities made me interested in the cultures of other countries and increased my desire to travel even more. Furthermore, one of them is the “Work and Travel” program.
After my trip to Almaty my desire to get on a plane and travel around the world on my own grew even more. I am more familiarized and comfortable in heights than ever before. My dream is to travel across the United States and make new friends from all over the world: from the state of Florida, where the sun shines brightly twelve months a year, to the capital of Washington, where the White House of the USA is located. At the same time, the cheerfulness and friendliness of Americans is one of the reasons why I want to visit this great nation of the world.
Of all the Student Travel Programs, participating in this program is a perfect choice for me. My particular interest in this program which allows me to incur less expenditure in comparison to other programs available to me at this time. I am delighted and indeed passionate to have this opportunity to study at an American university at least in a short period. It will have a gigantic positive impact on my knowledge and future. From the best of my belief, I think that this Student Travel Program will broaden the scope of our experience at the world stage. With an enormous smile, I will say is this, it will certainly brighten up my future in the job market, probably make me the hot selling cake to my future employers.
Moreover, with growing demand of diversity and the appetite for international standards in Kazakhstan as well as to other countries throughout the globe, being able to be a proficient English speaker almost as to the native speakers, understanding and embracing American cultures—the acquaintance with worldwide culture and normality and having the knowledge from a global education system will definitely be an added advantage to my CV. It is a light on my career path. Not only this, it will strengthen my source of finances, accelerate my capabilities and enhance my living standards to an international level. A boost of confidence and finance, that may allow me to peruse to pursue the path of business, eventually, contributes to the Kazakhstani economy.
Looking at the current circumstances of Student Exchange Program, I believe if I were in chief of exchanges, I would make it easier for students with talents and real passion to explore the country, culture and deep desires to enhance their knowledge. I am very aware of many students longing for it, including I myself to study at the best universities in the western countries, most importantly in America. For this reason, I would expand the horizons of learning opportunities to the overseas students at the minimalistic cost possible, so that my student exchange program can truly benefit those with authentic willingness and passion for such a program. As for those students who wish to study or seek internship for a definite time period, my student exchange would associate them with a number of placements and short-term university courses across the nation.
In my imagination Student Exchange Programs in the future, I presume in 20 to 50 years’ time, it will be very different to as it is now. Accessibility and affordability will be more convenient and easier than ever before. Not only this, it can take the full advantage of the growing innovative techs to expand the scope and allow these remarkable opportunities to be available to many more students unable to participate today due to many issues, for example, the borders problems and costs, etc. I don’t know if this suggestion is appropriate here, however; I hope it is. A Virtual Reality for an immersive experience that reflects to all benefits that a Student Exchange Program has to offer.
Besides, the organization of meetings in the virtual reality is developing rapidly nowadays. Thanks to the virtual reality, we will be able to reach any country we want in a few minutes. It will also be available to taste any food in the virtual reality at that time. With the help of technological progress, I have no doubt that humanity will be able to achieve such virtual progress in the next 20-50 years. By the time the virtual reality development reaches its peak, people will be able to travel virtually with their smartphones instead of airplanes. Through virtual exchanges, young people will be able to easily study in educational institutions of other countries and listen to lectures of great professors without any problems, and easily make acquaintances with other students. That is how I imagine future exchange programs to look like in the future.
In conclusion, knowledge is light! Student Exchange Program is a great addition to broadening knowledge. People with genuine interest in expanding the knowledge in this particular area, including me, we all should be granted the privilege to fulfil our choice. I will be extremely grateful for this opportunity.