Nazokat Makhmudova
Everything, Everywhere All at Once
Even if you have never met Nazokat, it is very likely that you already know her name. Her full name, Nazokatkhon, is Uzbek, and not one you hear everyday in Lebanon. But the real reason is that in the 10 years Nazokat has been a student at ACS she has managed to be a driving force behind many of the signature events and activities at ACS. How does Nazokat manage to be everything, everywhere all at once?
The short answer is she just can’t resist a new opportunity. “Were you always this way, we ask?” Maybe not always, but certainly after her parents moved from New York, where her father worked for the UN, to Beirut and she enrolled at ACS. “Fourth grade was a big year. Our upstairs neighbor was active in LEBMUN and went on to become Secretary General. He got me really interested in Model UN, but I knew I had to wait until 6th grade to become involved.” In the meantime, Nazokat found other opportunities, or rather, they found her. “I was in the LEGO Robotics club, but I was too young to do much of the designing and building because most of the kids were much older than I was. I needed a job, so I became the official presenter for the club – as a fourth grader! We went on to win the whole competition in Lebanon and I ended up presenting our project to huge audiences around Lebanon and at ACS.”
And from that memorable year the rest is, as they say, history. Once Nazokat entered Middle School she did indeed join LEBMUN and this year, after much hard work, was elected Co-Secretary General. After a taste of public speaking, Nazokat became involved in drama in middle school and continues to act in the high school theater program. And then there is her illustrious soccer career. Her senior year the girls won the coveted NESAC championship.
Community service has always been important to Nazokat. After she was approached by a Lebanese NGO, she founded a local chapter of Aflatoun, an international aid organization. In her freshman and sophomore years she participated in the Compassion Summit, an international student community service conference. After her first conference Nazokat was determined to spread her enthusiasm for grassroots student initiatives to her fellow classmates. Along with a group of her fellow attendees she met with the administration and her advisor and helped launch a campaign to enable and then encourage students to develop and launch new clubs at ACS. An outgrowth of this student effort was the foundation of activities, including TinyDesk, that still flourish today.
Nazokat hasn’t forgotten the kindness shown to her by her upstairs neighbor and those high school robotics students. Her mission now? Pay it forward so more students can be everything everywhere at ACS.