ADA University Alumni Newsletter

ADAU Alumni Newsletter
September 2014
ADA University
Alumni Newsletter
Dedicated to next “best class ever” MADIA 2014
In this issue
What we take away?
Page 2
One Day with Laman
Azizova
Page 5
Alumni story Farzin
Farzad
Page 6
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What we take away?
Memories, suggestions, achievements and struggles.
Hajar
Huseynova
"My greatest
achievement
at ADA is my trust in myself
which I have gained thanks to
the knowledge,
professionalism and values
during two years of studies. I
consider ADA as a place,
which taught me "Art of
Learning". By Art of Learning
This process of learning and
sharing never ends, meaning
that I will always be part of
ADA which is great honor
and pleasure. I consider all of
these my greatest
achievement."
Eleni Gkiola
“In ADA
University I
had to invest a
great deal
of time and
effort, in order to be a
successful master student.
After having spend some time
working professionally at the
Hellenic Police Organization,
being a student again proved
at times extremely
challenging. Nevertheless, my
efforts were rewarded with
knowledge, friends and a
lifetime experience in your
beautiful country. In that
sense I believe the dedication
and the hard work were my
greatest achievements.”
Afag Alizade
"Being a
member of
ADA
community
was a great pleasure for me. I can
say, for sure, that I got both
academic knowledge from our
eminent professors and
experience for future. Moreover, I
am extremely happy that here I
have got acquainted with people
who can be considered as an
epitome of professionalism and
inspiration. I am sure that thanks
to the skills that I acquired from
ADA I will have a great future
ahead of me"
Abdul Waheed Rahimi
“It was a
great
privilege and
indeed
worthwhile to
study at ADA
University.
These
all
good memories of times, the fun,
the frolicking and the experiences
we have spent at ADA will keep
us close to each other for a lifetime.
Through
these
two
incredible years, I had the
privilege to travel and explore the
regions in Azerbaijan. All the
cities are incredible, the beauty of
Lahic’s mountains, the tasty
Lavangi of Lankaran, the Kebab
of Shamakhy, the pomegranate
of Goychay and overall the
hospitable people of this country
will always
remind me of this great land. I
graduated with the absolute
certainty that choosing to study
at the ADA University was
among the best decisions of my
life and I am extremely proud to
call myself as the alumni of
ADA University. “
Tuncay
Musazade
"ADAU is a
very
successful
choice for
those who
really wants to study in a highlyranged academic environment
and be a part of a culturally
diverse community.I obtained
very comprehensive knowledge
and good practice on diplomacy
while studying at ADAU. As an
alumni, I would like to have
strong relations with my
University. These relations are
included: 1)our regular alumni
meetings,2) projects by alumni
students to support new
students, 3)some courses that
could be useful for alumni to
attend, 4)consultancy hours for
alumni if needed, 5)giving more
information about successful
alumni to the fellow students in
order to encourage them in their
studies and so on."
Gulnar
Bayramova
"Every day at
ADA
was
memorable for
2
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What we take away? (continued)
me. Starting from the day when I received an
email that entailed my acceptance to ADA from
my graduation. But days those I will not never
forget were our trip to Mongolia. Before the trip
we did immense research and while the visit we
met several representatives starting from
government agencies to big fours. ADA was my
home, where I spent most of my time, where I got
inspiration from every single member of it.
Thanks to support from the greatest people I ever
met- our professors!"
Gulnara Hasanova
“Skills, network, and friends –
these are major things, I think, I
attained at ADA University.
Along with getting knowledge
from brilliant professors, we had
been taught by them to look beyond our capacities
and develop our analytical thinking. Moreover,
we could develop our skills through opportunities
given to us here: to express ourselves through
Graduate Student Government and ADA Clubs,
to take part in different competitions and
arrangement of various events at ADA. Finally,
no student life would be memorable without
helpful, talented, smart, and funny classmates.
For me, it is a big honor to have close friends
among such amazing people, whom I met thanks
to ADA University. “
Rugiyya Melikova
“Two years of my life that I spent at ADA
University can be considered as
a great struggle. Everything,
starting with my admission
interview to ADA and ending
with thesis defense, was a
struggle. But the greatest
struggle was my last semester
at ADA, more precisely, thesis in combination
with Capstone project, classes, and career
interviews. You are starting to feel the difference
between simply consuming the knowledge and
contributing to science. Eventually all these
Spring 2016
struggles turned out to be a great success and
achievement! I am very happy
about that!”
Samra Humbatova
“As alumni I would like to see
more academic achievements
of our students, since the high
quality research defines the reputation of the
university. It would be better to have more
academic events at ADA like essay
competitions, conferences which can encourage
and motivate students to engage in research, get
published etc. Teaching, learning and sharing
must be the primary purpose of student life.”
Gunel Osmanova
“My greatest achievement at
ADA was the attributes that
enabled me to construct a
sense of my future success. I
would like to express my
achievements at ADA with
the following expressions such as: 1)To get
education
at
the
best institution
that
acknowledges the achievements of students by
securing awards and promotions; 2) To get an
access
to
the most challenging and
interesting education; 3)Ability to maintain
happy and healthy family relations with all
members of institution.”
Shafa Mammadova
“First, I appreciate the
activity of CMC team in
ADAU as they helped me a
lot in many cases. However, I
think there might be created
more convenient mechanism
between ADAU and MFA for the students who
would want to continue his/her career in MFA.
Second, it would be better if ADAU student or
alumni spends its free time in the gym with
swimming pool and fitness hall.Third, I would
like to see more international and native
professors in ADAU.”
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What we take away? (continued)
Ilaha
Abbaszade
Gunay
Dashdamirova
“Studying at
ADA was itself
one of the
greatest achievements in my life.
ADA university's core values such
as excellence, integrity, diversity,
respect, social responsibility have
become the part of my life. Being
a master student of ADA was a
successful and motivating page in
my life which let me pursue my
career goals confidently. My
internship at the embassy of
Azerbaijan to Italy, the
NATO(Belgium) trip, our
research trips to Kyrgyzstan and
Vietnam were amazing
experiences in terms of putting
knowledge into practice.”
Samir Sultansoy
“ADAU gave me
two years of
struggle and
achievements. At
the beginning of
my studies, I
found it difficult
to adapt to
different learning
environment and educational
system at ADA. Also I was
overwhelmed by the amount of
readings and assignments and
from time to time I had difficulties
to handle them all together.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed and
learned a lot at ADA and is happy
to be a part of it.”
“The 2 years
study at ADA
gave me great
experience in academic field
and made me to become
more responsible, sociable
person. The best thing about
ADA is that the community
formulate not only students
with good academic
background but also
responsible citizens. Another
best thing is that thanks to
ADA I have been offered
very good positions in
different companies and
organizations. For example,
during my study years I used
to work for a local NGO as a
projects assistant where I
gained huge experience in
project management and
project
coordination
.”
Uldis
Villeruss
“I wish ADA University new
achievements and bright
students! From Alumni
perspective I have
suggestions both to academic
and student life 1. It could be
advised to ADAU to actually
focus on what matters the
most which is the academic
performance and experience.
Improving the curriculum
and program structure as
well as allocation of credit
points could be
advised.Regarding student
life – I wish ADA to
improve areas of student
employment.
”
Aygul
Rasulova“I
have to
mention that
my ADA
experience is full of bright
memories. It is very hard to
choose the most interesting
one. But what I liked most of
all was the pre-term period,
particularly being acquainted
with my group mates and
professors. And on the other
hand during that period we
had a lot of time for resting,
chilling, walking. We did not
still began to think about
hard exams, papers, group
works. Those were happy
days!”
Ramiz
Hajizade
One of the
greatest
challenges for me was heavy
weight of complicated classes
and of course exams which
were aimed to measure
adhered knowledge. At the
beginning of the 1st semester
I was terrified by graphs and
formulas in Microeconomics
class, then I faced up with
enormous sized books of
Public International Law.
Afterwards I recognized that
the only way to struggle with
difficult subjects and plenty
of reading materials to give
up everything in daily
routine and study till early
mornings. Great challenges,
great achievements”
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One Day with Laman Azizova
One of our traditional rubrics is spending one working day with our
Alumni. For this section our guest is fresh new Alumni – Laman
Azizova, who started working for ADA University right after
graduation.
“It has been three months since I graduated from MADIA and started
working in the department of Executive Education at ADA University. For
the last two years, ADA has become as the second home for me, where we
learnt to think globally and explore new horizons. And now,
becoming an employee at ADA is a great privilege and
responsibility. Being a part of ADA Community it is all
about loyalty, integrity, diversity, honor, energy, and
certainly responsible citizenship. That’s why, to be honest, it
is very difficult to find differences between notions of “a
student” and “an employee” at ADA University, because
while styding here you are a part of this community, living
with its core values and principles.
I am glad I started working in the department of Executive Education as
Program Coordinator responsible for administration of Advanced Foreign
Service Program (AFSP). I know that this is one of the first programs in the
ADA what makes me proud of my work. In this position, I am responsible
for development, planning, implementing and evaluating training programs
for government agencies. Every day, I am working closely with Ministry of
Foreign Affairs on AFSP. My working day begins with checking emails,
staff meetings followed by individual supervision by my director. Today, I
am going to work on AFSP calendar, program content and budget, and
continue communication with program participants and new applicants. The
working day is usually quite busy so that I do not notice how it ends. I feel
very lucky to work in a team of professionals as in ADA Executive
Education. This is an advantage and a good opportunity to learn, grow, and
perform differently, as our motto says.”
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Alumni story Farzin Farzad
One of brightest members of MADIA 2014 class Farzin
Farzad kindly agreed to answer our questions for
Alumni Story rubric. Farzin, thank you so much for
1. As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be an astronomer and study the stars. I was fascinated by physics
and astronomy and I loved space. I always thought maybe I could travel the solar system when I grew
up.
2. What’s the #1 most played song on your music player?
Moonlight Sonata. Somehow that piece both relaxes me and gives me some energy and drive to move
forward whenever I listen to it.
3. What is your favorite time of day? Why?
The time I set aside to watch Game of Thrones or House of Cards.
4. What is your favorite quote?
Beware the fury of a patient man.” John Dryden
5. How would you define yourself in three words?
Charismatic, passionate, hungry
6. What was the most important influence of ADA on you?
I think the best thing about ADA was seeing students and staff with a range of different goals and
aspirations. You learn to appreciate peoples’ strengths.
7. What has been your biggest challenge at ADA?
My thesis, of course. I’m still not satisfied with it.
8. What was your best memory at ADA?
Probably the study trips to Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Great experiences with
great friends.
9. What are you currently doing ?
Well currently I’m searching for jobs in Washington D.C. now, but meanwhile, I’m working on
a couple projects that I had held off while in Baku. One of them is a non-profit I helped start in
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in 2011, focused on ethnic Azerbaijanis from Iran living in the U.S.
10. What is your biggest success up until now?
I think one of the most impressive things I have done has been to represent my ethnic group
at the 2008 Minority Rights Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. I also wrote a speech that was
presented at the 2010 Durban Review Conference on Racism.
11. What are your career plan for the next 5 years?
Ph.D., work in a think tank or government for a while, then teach
12. What would be your wishes to ADA?
I hope ADA begins to produce quality research that contributes to academia. I believe ADA
shouldn’t fall into the trap of being just a teaching school, but one that truly showcases the
potential of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis.
ADA University
Alumni Relations Office ADA University 11 Ahmadbay Aghoglu Street Baku, AZ 1009, Azerbaijan Tel: (+994 12) 437 3235 ext 122 Fax: (+994 12) 437 3236 E-­‐mail: [email protected] Web: www.ada.edu.az