One of the most influential periods for most young people can be their student life, and I’m delighted to say that the Global UGRAD Program was a significant part of my undergraduate years that made my studentship even more valuable. During the program, I was able to immerse myself in learning the subjects of my academic interest such as Computer Networks, Mobile Programming, Data Science and even American Politics.
Since my lifetime ambition has been to find people with similar interests and to frame a community that forms solutions to social and academic problems, all my efforts allowed me to meet the program committee’s expectations as a potential leader.
Before applying for Global UGRAD, I was an active community contributor with various projects and active organization of English and IT clubs. Meanwhile, I worked on Google I/O Extended conferences that united developers interested in Google’s products. The Global UGRAD Program was a great opportunity to see myself as a cultural ambassador of my country, university, and community. In return, I familiarized myself with a foreign culture, enhanced my leadership skills, and importantly was able to acquire academic knowledge based on up-to-date practices.
After returning to my home country, I was so motivated to give back to the community what I had learned in the USA. I wanted to connect the world with our local community and bring the best of our local community to the world. We tried to unite experts in the field and rising talents in IT under one platform. Afterwards, a small IT conference of 100+ people quickly grew to the biggest developers’ festival in Central Asia which included more than 1,000 participants and 30+ local and international speakers, including 10 Google Developer Experts from all around the world. It was considered the biggest developer festival in Central Asia in 2018 and 2019.
Looking back to the years since I have become a program alumnus, I can confirm that the program constitutes a huge contribution to my professional and social interests to be transferred into missions on a broader scale. After finishing the program, I tried out different positions such as project manager, frontend developer, and backend developer. I finally found myself in Product Management. I am currently working as a Product Growth Specialist for Central Asia at Pro Unlimited at Facebook. I’m a part of a team which brings international products and makes them relevant to the people of the region. I realized that IT is needed to establish networks, to build bridges between communities intensively, and that there is a return need for networking to improve the IT-sphere.
People apply for Global UGRAD with many purposes, and I believe everyone can find something that they are looking for during the program. As I found a way to realize my dreams with the help of a program, I believe everyone else also can do it. Don’t miss the chance and apply! #OnceaUGRADAlwaysaUGRAD
Nuruddin Iminokhunov, Uzbekistan, Global UGRAD 2016-2017, University of Mississippi