My name is Qudratbekova Davlatnoz and I am a 15-year-old student (Grade 9) at the Aga Khan Lycée in Khorog, Tajikistan. I consider myself to be very lucky as I pursue my future career in medicine. I hold an academic scholarship for the highest grades in chemistry and have won several local and regional Olympiads. I could not have done this alone; these are a few of the milestones my school and teachers have enabled me to achieve. I am proud of my school and thankful for the people who are guiding, teaching and inspiring me through my studies.
I am fortunate enough to have met people who inspired me to love chemistry. I never thought I was great at the sciences or math but then I started chemistry lessons and met my chemistry teacher, Nozanin Khudonazarova. She is optimistic, energetic and determined to encourage her students to love science. She managed to feed our natural curiosity about chemistry so much so that our confidence increased and we went to hang out with her after school just to learn a little bit more. She didn’t just teach us chemistry, she taught me and my classmates to believe in ourselves and that we can achieve our endeavours if we simply put our minds to it.
Another woman who always supports and encourages me is my mother, an ecologist and a chemistry Olympiad winner in the past. She supports me with homework, turning the learning process into interesting discussions that enable us to find great solutions together. My mother gave me the freedom to explore my own interests and find my own academic path, and encouraged me to increase my knowledge in many different areas. It is my goal to continue to work hard so that I can achieve the same academic accomplishments; she is my role model as I work towards future victories.
I am happy that the Aga Khan Lycée has introduced daily science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities for its students to maximise the opportunities for admission to higher learning institutions. This is another great opportunity for the female students at our school who strive for higher learning. Here, opportunities for female students often come along through our female teachers, who inspire us to realise our dreams and whose efforts are worthy of public acknowledgement. I am so thankful for them!
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This text was adapted from an article published on the AKES website.
