Elnara Heydarova, an eighth-grade student from our Learning Hub in Lankaran, shares her story about how her ever-improving English and core skills put her on a path to become an architect in the future.
The opening of a learning hub in my beautiful home city of Lankaran was a new beginning for my education and my future career. Before this, I've been tirelessly trying to learn English for almost four years, but I was struggling despite putting in all my effort and dedication. For many young people in my region, English is an opportunity to improve their future lives and opportunities, and also a chance to study abroad.
'The Learning Hubs programme really took my listening, reading, writing and speaking skills to another level.'
I have not only gained a new-found passion for learning, but also opened up so many doors to the wider world around me. Now I can easily understand the lyrics of the English-language songs, and also communicate with my friends and peers that live abroad. This helps me get access to so much information out there, and help me discover new ideas, think critically and solve problems on my own whenever I face them.
Becoming an architect
Before I started learning English at my school's learning hub, I wasn't sure about what I wanted to do in the future. Everything started with a STEM MOOC exchange programme which my English teacher recommended to me. It helped me broaden my outlook, make new friends from so many different countries, discover new ideas and learn more about technology and its applications in many different disciplines.
I think that having access to different sources of information, blogs and vlogs in English really helped inform me about different career pathways out there in Azerbaijan and the wider world. It has helped me to see myself a goal to become an architect since laying out plans, sketching and exploring technology is what I do best.
