March 9, 2018
«This experience was very helpful when I was applying to the Master Degree Programs and scholarships, because to have high grades in a transcript is not the main priority for the admissions and sponsors, they consider also the experience to conduct research. As my professor at my new university said, “you are here not because you are the best, you are here because you are already a researcher».
This is a review of Basira Mir Mahamad - AUCA alumni.
She was among three winners of the TSPC competition announced in 2016 to conduct her research.
In 2017 Basira was simultaneously accepted to three prestigious universities - CEU (Central European University, Hungary), Cambridge (Great Britain) and the program Erasmus +. But she had chosen Erasmus + program and Cambridge (Great Britain).
Please read the full review of Basira Mir Mahamad below:
Migration is the answer to the question why we are in that continent, country, region, and city. You can disagree with me, because your argument can be that you never migrated, you never changed a place for living, but I am sure that most people once or even more times have migrated during their lifetime, or if they have never migrated, they are here because their ancestors migrated. If there is no migration from the Africa continent in the past you would not be in the continent where you are now and we would not have different cultures.
Today we know the main migration reasons; they are not very different from the original migration cause in the past. To know the reasons of migration is not the end, because migration has to be studied more from different perspectives such as political, economic, social and cultural. Being a junior student, I was interested to study migration effects to the culture. My study was supported by TSPC within the program “3 BEST MIGRATION RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSALS”. I wished to find out the extent to which Kyrgyz immigrants continue to practice magico-religious medicine after coming to the United States. This research gave me the opportunity to know more about our compatriots in America. Knowing the answer to my question, I could shed light on the degree to which Kyrgyz become acculturated when they come to the United States.
Besides that I could find out the answers to my research questions I could have an experience to be a researcher, what was very important for me because in that time I realized that to have a diploma is not an indicator of my abilities. There are many educated young people in our country, but there is a small percentage of young people with work experience after they graduate university. This experience was very helpful when I was applying to the Master Degree Programs and scholarships, because to have high grades in a transcript is not the main priority for the admissions and sponsors, they consider also ability to conduct research. As my professor at my new university said, “you are here not because you are the best, you are here because you are already a researcher”. Being a master student is to conduct a lot of research during two years of study and there is no time to study how to conduct research, there is time only to do research. Thanks to the program “3 BEST MIGRATION RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSALS” I got not only skills how should I write research but also I has acquired the skills to do analysis, understand people (I saw when people were cheating or telling the truth), I learned how to work with a large amount of information what was useful for writing my senior thesis. I apply all these skills in my studies now.
Generally speaking, if you are interested in migration studies, program “3 BEST MIGRATION RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSALS” is the best way to learn how to conduct individual research and to be financially supported, because any study (research) needs funding and lack of money can be sometimes a problem for realizing some research. But the most important part is that you will be able to study what you like and what is interesting for you. Please remember even it will be your individual project you will be every time supported by TSPC and their advice and support will be a key to the successful research!
The information about TSPC competition you can read: https://auca.kg/en/tspcnews/3332/
Please kindly be reminded that the deadline for submission of migration research project proposals is April 13, 2018.