From Kazakhstan to Minnesota: A 10-Year journey of PhD success and motherhood
Post-doctoral associate reflects on her CEHD path
It was a bright August afternoon in Minneapolis when my husband and I stood in front of our new apartment, exhausted after a 25+ hour flight from Kazakhstan with three suitcases and our 1-year-old son in our arms. As we stepped into the empty unfurnished space, we also stepped into a new chapter—one that began on a blank, unwritten page. We had no experience studying abroad, and no prior connections to Minnesota.
Nearly 10 years later, our transformative journey in Minnesota has come full circle. As we prepare to return to Kazakhstan, I find myself closing a chapter filled with adventures, growth, and profound change. Both my husband and I earned our graduate degrees from CEHD, and this past fall my youngest sister began her master’s program here. Our family grew from three to five as we welcomed two more sons. Minnesota became our home, and we built lifelong friendships and a community that shaped who we are today.
There were many challenges along this journey. Beyond the academic challenges that most international students face when adjusting to campus and a new country, I carried an added layer of questions about how to navigate it all as a young family. Because my husband did not speak English, I became our family’s translator and cultural guide. My attention felt constantly split between home and campus, making it hard to be fully present in either place. I struggled to listen closely to my professors and often found myself staring blankly at my computer in the library as I tried to complete my assignments. My split life left me feeling emotionally depleted and full of guilt. What sustained me during this period was the support of my family, peers, neighbors, and faculty. Their encouragement and understanding created a lifeline that helped me endure and eventually grow through those demanding early years.
CEHD made me feel truly welcome—not just as a student, but as a whole person. My family was embraced and with that, all parts of my identity: mother, wife, daughter, scholar. That sense of belonging was powerful. It reminded me that I did not have to separate who I was to succeed. I could bring my full self—and that made all the difference. Without the community and support I received at CEHD, I would not be who I am today.
CEHD is the place where I met caring mentors, outstanding scholars, and dedicated teachers and true leaders. They provided continuous and generous care, encouragement, and guidance. I felt their unwavering support and care from the moment I was admitted to the program, through all the ups and downs along the journey. No matter what question or concern I had, be it about the PhD program, current or future aspirations, or life in general, I could count on my mentors being fully present and listening to me with deep understanding and care.
Being in a PhD program creates a special bond because no one else except your peers really knows what it’s like. Colleagues became friends, we cried over family tragedies, celebrated weddings, and laughed over discounted tacos every Tuesday. Through it all, we encouraged each other to keep going. As diverse individuals from around the world, we found our cultural commonalities and celebrated our differences, enhancing our intercultural competence in the process.
2022 cohort of Kazakhstani visiting scholars during their visit to Split Rock Lighthouse.
Building on my personal and professional experiences of witnessing significant disparities in education and career opportunities through attending both rural and urban schools, in my doctoral dissertation, I studied how students’ transitions into and out of the university can be structured to maximize academic and career success, especially for marginalized youth from rural and lower socioeconomic backgrounds in Kazakhstan. My dissertation was awarded with multiple fellowships at UMN, including the prestigious Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. I am now expanding my dissertation findings and theories to new projects focused on issues of access and equity in Central Asia such as the impact of gender, social class, and ethnicity on urban parents’ school choice and on the transition experiences of freshmen in elite universities.
Another project focuses on equity in internationalization of higher education, including the analysis to explore the strength of connections between Kazakhstani and U.S. university partners, and building sustainable collaborations in higher education.
I have also grown through other experiences and opportunities. I served on the CEHD search committee for a tenure-track faculty position and on special interest groups for new scholars and Eurasia within the Comparative and International Education Society. I co-founded the CEHD Graduate Student Parents and Caregivers Alliance, an initiative born directly from my lived experience. Through cross-cultural engagement and knowledge sharing, I have spoken about navigating education systems in Kazakhstan and the U.S. to university students, rural schools, Kazakhstani PhD associations, and through interviews to local newspapers and social media platforms.
CEHD is also the place where I had the chance to realize a dream I carried with me from the start of my PhD: to build bridges between my home country Kazakhstan and CEHD. Back in 2019-20, UMN had fewer than 10 students from Kazakhstan. Today, things look very different. CEHD has since established a visiting scholars’ program, initiated partnerships with universities across Kazakhstan, and created a faculty residency program. Our college has hosted over 40 visiting scholars from more than 27 educational institutions across eight cities of Kazakhstan. Leading these initiatives and teaching international visiting scholars as well as UMN undergraduate and graduate students challenged me to walk my talk as a bi-discoursal scholar committed to access and equity. It gave me a space to integrate theory into my practice as a teacher and leader. None of these would have been possible without the support and vision of CEHD International Initiatives leadership, grounded in centering relationships and reciprocity.
As I step into this next chapter, I carry with me the lessons, relationships, and values that CEHD instilled in me. CEHD shaped not only my scholarship, but also my understanding of what it means to lead with integrity, compassion, and purpose. CEHD’s commitment to fostering human development and expanding opportunities for all—locally and globally—has become deeply intertwined with my own path. Although my family and I are returning to Kazakhstan, my connection to this place remains rooted in shared values and a shared purpose. I look forward to continuing this work as an alumna, strengthening the bridges we have built together, and contributing to communities both at home and across borders. And perhaps one day, my children will walk these same hallways as students, carrying forward the legacy of belonging and possibility that CEHD has given us.
Photos courtesy of Zhuldyz Amankulova