Sadiya – Legacy of a Change Maker
Sadiya, TechGirl 2019, Uzbekistan
Since my childhood I always wanted to study in the United States. Since participating in the TechGirls program last summer I got an initial taste of what it is like to study in the states and learned that education is really powerful and forms a person’s intelligence.
My participation in the TechGirls program has changed my life for the better. Seeing all 62 girls from all over the world, getting to know them and the projects they work on, and their experience in technology are all amazing inspiration. All the activities including academic classes to community service have been full of joy and inspiration.Taking Java and cyber security classes, visiting labs and discussions with engineers truly improved my knowledge in STEM.
Returning home I organized my community project where I helped 10 smart girls from my school who were eager to be a part of our Uzbek TechGirls community improve their IT and English speaking skills, make friends, have inspiring conversation about future opportunities and become motivators and change-makers in my school. In addition, we have organized amazing activities, such as presentations where we had motivated young girls and told them about my project; organized new year gifts for children from low-income families and participated in several seminars. I come from a city in Uzbekistan where the technology field is not really developed and I was glad to see girls’ initial interest in technology and decide their career paths. I’m so glad that I formed not only my UzTechGirls community, but these girls want to continue my project and teach technology to younger kids.
I’m excited to say I have been chosen as a finalist for another educational program called FLEX (future leaders exchange). I will be studying in an American high school during the 2020-2021 academic year. I am looking forward to participating in extracurricular activities, community involvements, make lifelong friends, learn better about cultures and do my best to be a wonderful ambassador of Uzbekistan in America.
I’m thankful for Legacy International for developing a “legacy of change makers” who are working hard to help their communities and thankful to the U.S. Department of State for creating and forming great change makers through these exchange programs.
