Aylar Atadurdyyeva

Building community and sharing culture

Aylar Atadurdyyeva was sitting in her University Scholars seminar when she had a lightbulb moment: She wanted to be a doctor, but not a physician as she had intended.

“There are physicians who acquire skills to treat you and then there are doctors who are taught how to think outside the box and acquire new knowledge,” Atadurdyyeva said. “That was a turning point for me. I didn’t want to be a physician. I wanted to be a doctor.”

It was a radical thought for Atadurdyyeva, who grew up in Turkmenistan and didn’t know what a doctor of philosophy was until her freshman year of college when she heard her political science professors talk about their research.

The moment of clarity morphed into four majors — microbiology, Slavic languages and literatures, political science, and global and international studies — as well as two minors and four certificates. By the time she graduated last spring, Atadurdyyeva had written four widely ranging honor theses: interactions among the bacteria Wolbachia, fruit flies and fungus; Turkmen wedding traditions; anti-microbial resistance in the European Union; and policy and language use in Kazakhstan.

“The opportunities to engage with undergraduate research changed my life,” Atadurdyyeva said and noted that receiving a full-tuition scholarship at KU enabled her to earn those four degrees.

Atadurdyyeva was attending Cascadia College, a community college in Bothell, Washington, when she met a KU international admissions recruiter at a fair for transfer students. She immediately recognized “the bird” and knew of other Turkmen students who attended KU. She decided to apply to KU, as well as the International Excellence Award, which provided a full-tuition scholarship.

“When I received word that I received it, at that moment, it was deal sealed for me,” Atadurdyyeva said.

Atadurdyyeva’s time at KU extended far beyond academics. During her four years, she was the director of The Big Event, which connects the campus to the Lawrence community during one day of service, and served on the Homecoming Steering Committee, even though she had never participated in the U.S. tradition of homecoming until arriving at KU. She also was active in Student Union Activities, overseeing finance and partnerships.

- By Christine Metz Howard

Last fall she was one of three students recognized with the KU Alumni Association’s Ex.C.E.L. Award for Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership, an honor that was received in a stadium full of fans during the KU Homecoming football game.

“In my community college, I was part of the student government and activities board, and I knew I wanted to continue that when I came to KU,” Atadurdyyeva said. “I feel happiest when I’m building community in meaningful ways.”

From tabling during student events for the Global Awareness Program to leading cooking classes, Atadurdyyeva was a tireless advocate for international education at KU, GAP coordinator Michelle Ward said.

“As one of only two students from Turkmenistan, Aylar had to educate many in the community on the Central Asian country. She did so with grace and honesty,” Ward said.

When life turned online during the global pandemic, Atadurdyyeva hosted a crash course on Turkmenistan for International Support Services. The group met once a week for four weeks to learn about the country’s food, culture and history.

Last spring, she led a Global Cooking Class for students, teaching them to make the Turkmen dumplings known as manty, an emotionally significant food for Atadurdyyeva. Growing up, her entire family would participate in making the dumplings. Alongside her mother, she would roll and cut the dough, while her brothers and father would fill and shape the dough.

“The component of bringing people together is what makes it special for me,” Atadurdyyeva said. “It’s laborious, but you get to chitchat with your family while making dumplings.”

Since starting KU, Atadurdyyeva hasn’t been home to see her family, so the opportunity to share her culture with the Lawrence community has allowed her to stay connected to Turkmenistan and helped solidify her identity as a Turkmen scholar.

“For the longest time, I was either a Turkmen or a scholar, but those two didn’t mesh in my head because Turkmenistan doesn’t do academia as the U.S. does it,” Atadurdyyeva said. “There was a fracture. Being able to talk about Turkmenistan in an academic setting helped that rupture shrink.”

Atadurdyyeva is taking a gap year to explore graduate schools and is a KU nominee for a Rhodes Global Scholarship to pursue graduate study in the United Kingdom. Her goal is to become a professor at an R1 top-tier research university, where she hopes to change the world, one student at a time.

For Ward, Aylar represents the best KU has to offer.

“KU is incredibly fortunate to be part of her story,” Ward said.