Malika Kanatbek kyzy: “Dreams can come true if you really work hard to reach them”

September 22, 2016

Malika Kanatbek kyzy is a junior in the Journalism and Mass Communications Department (JMC) at AUCA. She had an internship at the US Embassy in Bishkek, participated in the Youth for Human Rights International Summit (YHRI) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, and started her exchange semester at Bard College in the US. Malika shared her thoughts and experience with us. 

«This past summer was one of the memorable and eventful summers I have ever had in my life. The summer was such a powerful experience, because some of my life goals were achieved and, as a result, I started to believe that dreams can come true if you really work hard to reach them.

My summer started with an internship opportunity at the US Embassy. The application process was typical, a paper application and then an interview. I worked in the press section of the Public Affairs Office under the direct supervision of the Press Attaché and Public Affairs Officer. I assisted the PAS’s press team in gathering morning media summaries and preparing social media content for the Embassy’s Facebook and Twitter pages on a daily basis. Over those two months, I had to handle a variety of professional assignments, which gave me hands-on experience with many of the responsibilities found in an entry-level Information Assistant position. These projects included Better Understanding for a Better World (BUBW), a conference on leadership, interfaith, and intercultural tolerance, and the Silk Road Ultra Marathon Program with legendary American runner Dean Karnazes. It was pretty busy summer for me.

Although I do not have the space to explain every detail of my internship, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the atmosphere at the U.S. Embassy. It truly is impressive. When each of your coworker shows you real respect, you can feel the significance of your own role regardless of whether you are an intern or the ambassador. In either and every case, your coworkers respect and value you. To some extent, my time at the embassy also prepared me for an American lifestyle. As a matter of fact, I was supposed to work at the embassy for three months but my term had to be cut short because of the conference and the start date of my exchange semester.

The second part of my summer was spent on a more conventional patch of “American Soil”—New York, New York. Earlier, I had received an invitation to and won a scholarship to attend the Youth Human Rights International Summit which was to be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. This summit sponsored 30 Youth Delegates to represent their respective countries and I was lucky to be one of them. There were big discussions about global problems related to human rights. People from all over the world shared their stories and gave very inspirational speeches. I also gave a speech as the youth delegate representing Kyrgyzstan. It was exhilarating and at the same time amazing to stand in front of people from different parts of the world and share my thoughts and ideas. I learnt a lot of new things about human rights, learned more about other cultures, heard both tragic and inspiring stories, and was motivated to greater action—all over the course of this one conference. Next year, I am planning to participate in the 14th YHRI Summit not as an ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic, and I hope I’m not the only Kyrgyz person there.

After the conference wrapped up, I made my way to Bard College to start my semester as an exchange student. As I write, I’m here in New York beginning my Junior year. I applied for the exchange program last February, and after completing all the application forms, tests, statements of purpose, and recommendation letters, I got the Congratulatory letter from Bard College and in early April. Right now, it’s just the beginning of my semester, but I am already excited about everything around me. Everybody should know, however, that behind every success story is a pile of embarrassing first tries, several failures, numerous setbacks and radical changes of direction».

To be continued…

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