Nazgul Bayetova

Six years ago, Nazgul Bayetova was a secondary school teacher in Ekibastuz, a small town in Kazakhstan. She realized she not only needed to make a change in her country’s education system, but she wanted the chance to purse her dreams of professional success.

Nazgul received the Bolashak International Scholarship in 2014, allowing this first-generation graduate to come to the United States to pursue her studies. She graduated from the University of Miami in 2017 and is now graduating with a Ph.D. in Higher Education from FIU. Nazgul is publishing a monograph based on her dissertation research. 

Nazgul, who always envisioned being a mother, wife and a woman successful in her career, is now a mother to a five-year-old son and 9-month-old daughter. She’s applied for the Optional Practice Training, in hopes of obtaining authorization to work in the United States. At the same time, she’ll be collecting data and creating a data base system on universities in Kazakhstan through the Soris Foundation Grant.

For Nazgul, her dream to receive a Ph.D. once seemed impossible, but she set short term goals to help herself along the way. And she’s not done yet. One day, she hopes to be the Secretary of Education for Kazakhstan.

By Christine Calvo
Junior Account Manager
College of Arts, Sciences & Education