Saltanat Ibraeva: "AUCA is a platform for self-exploration"

March 3, 2016

Saltanat Ibraeva

ICP 109

Alumni 2013

Short intro

After graduating AUCA I did a few internships. One as an assistant of Elvira Sarieva and another at the PromoTank Consulting Company. I was searching for my vocation and finally found it as a journalist with #ONE MAGAZINE editorial. Within a year, I was promoted to publishing editor and shortly after that I was accepted into the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree Program in Journalism, Media and Globalisation.

The Role of AUCA in my Career

AUCA was definitely a springboard for my career. It gave me the foundation of an international and liberal arts education: freedom and responsibility. It was not about blindly fighting for democracy and freedom — instead, we learned to take responsibility for each of our own actions and decisions. Meanwhile, studying in the department of International and Comparative Politics was four years of rigorous practice in academic writing. Now, every time I see a student googling information from Wikipedia, I get freaked out. I am grateful AUCA taught me to express my own thoughts in writing.

The highlights of my time at AUCA

I really miss my alma mater and the four years I spent there. AUCA is not just an educational institution. It is a platform for self-exploration, for making international connections, for personal development of various skills, and most importantly for becoming part of a family. AUCA destroys the Soviet boundary between students and teachers, giving students an exclusive opportunity to communicate with professors outside their courses and without labels. In the future, this may give you an amazing opportunity to gain a friend and a mentor in your life and career. For example, one of my professors Jomart Ormonbekov helped me get my internship, my job position, and wrote the recommendation letter for my application to the Master’s Program. I would say, the people I met were the highlight of my time at AUCA.

The biggest achievement of my career after graduating AUCA

In 2014, I was appointed to be the first Young Ambassador from Kyrgyzstan for the second summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2014 held in Nanjing, China. I was chosen by both the Kyrgyz National Olympic Committee (NOC) and International Olympic Committee (IOC). Their choice was based on my record of service record, which one of the members of Kyrgyz NOC (also an AUCA alumni) noticed. What they needed for the position of the Young Ambassador was sociability, activism, and a good level of English. It was the most amazing experience I’ve had: living in the Olympic village, meeting people from all over the world with different backgrounds, and being a representative of my country. At some point, we were the chosen ones. Recently, I visited the second winter YOG in Lillehammer, where I met some old friends, met new people, and our little Kyrgyz delegation. I think being part of the Olympic movement without being an athlete is wonderful and lucky, and would not have been possible if it weren’t the skillset I was taught at AUCA.

Me and AUCA right now

Currently, I am enrolled in both the Danish School of Media and Journalism and Aarhus University as part of my joint Master’s Degree. I have been living in the city called Aarhus for a while, and my alma mater gave me the honor of being the AUCA Alumni Ambassador in Denmark. For now, it feels like I am the only one studying here in this country, but hopefully, by the end of the academic year, there will be a small reunion in Copenhagen. In August, I am moving to the Netherlands to complete my degree specialization in Media and Politics at the University of Amsterdam. There, I will keep my role as the Alumni Ambassador for AUCA. For now, I do not know where my life will take me to after my Master’s Degree, but whatever happens in future, I know AUCA will always be the part of it.

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