CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, A POTENTIAL GATEWAY TO EXPLORE THE WORLD

by Aidin Turganbekov - American University of Central Asia

A VILLAGE GIRL’S ROAD TO THE BIG CITY

Uulzhan Bekturova is a senior at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), majoring in Liberal Arts Studies, concentrating on human rights. She comes from a small village in Narynin northern Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, some parents tend to be moved by conservative social beliefs and divide the responsibilities and possibilities based on the child's gender. For example, men usually take responsibility for outdoor chores, such as cattle care. However, her family only had daughters, so Uulzhan and her five sisters assisted her father in these tasks. With the difficulty of accessing clean water, she would wake up early to get it first, feed the sheep, study, organize social events, and return to feed the animals again. From the 7th grade on, along with her home chores and the cattle, cleaning and cooking, Uulzhan began participating in afterschool events, including sports and academic competitions. Although she has a solid and challenging workload at home and school, her parents encourage her to participate in all social activities to actively pursue her interests.

How An Osun Project Opened The Door For Life In New York

As AUCA values connecting academics to extracurricular activities, Uulzhan decided to jump into civic engagement events right from the New Generation Academy, a preparatory program to study at AUCA. Being a part of the Open Society University Network gives AUCA's students multiple opportunities to implement their civic engagement projects The OSUN Human Rights and Arts Grant, which Uulzhan won after writing a proposal based on her Introduction to Human Rights course during her first year, enabled her to study abroad at Bard College Annandale

Seeing various human rights problems, she and her team organized workshops for youth in rural areas They focused on using photography to spread awareness about local violations and implemented a project for girls and youth empowerment in rural areas to provide tools in leadership, active listening, and application to other programs. These experiences helped her to not only develop e both soft and hard skills to deal with various life experiences.

Thanks to communication with a diverse student body, Uulzhan learned about a fully-funded program in New York City The Program for International Education (PIE) and applied with an already rich civic engagement experience and international worldview. "It was the best experience I have ever had because Bard is just one love!"

Uulzhan says excitedly of her experience. She also shares that those activities she was organizing and being part of helped immensely in finding opportunities in the human rights sphere. She didn't waste time at Bard either, being part of knitting, dancing, assisting on the farm, and helping at the thrift store to support vulnerable communities. Therefore, the abundance of clubs inspired Uulzhan to open a knitting club at her university to help students socialize and release stress during the intensive academic year.

A New Perspective And Motivation From Bard

Uulzhan underlines that active communication, a humble attitude, and sincerity are all skills that help to attract people with kind and supportive souls. After hearing about the German language program at Bard College Berlin, Uulzhan started reaching out to university staff and international friends to raise funds so she could study German culture and marginalized communities there Uulzhan encourages readers to be open to all challenges and opportunities and emphasizes that curiosity about others often leads to exploring the world and finding inspiration to bring that experience back home and strengthen local communities