Adylbek Abdykalikov leads the METRANS Student Event Team and is a second-year USC Price School Master of International Public Policy and Management (IPPAM) student from Kazakhstan. Abdykalikov earned his Bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the Kazakh State University in 2012.  He then began working for the Ministry of Transport and Communication at the Department of International Cooperation in Kazakhstan where he gained valuable experience and an in-depth understanding of transportation policy, transportation logistics, and transit issues.

“As a government representative, I realized that it is absolutely essential to gain deeper knowledge in policy planning and implementation to establish effective policy so I decided to join USC for my Master’s degree” remarks Abdykalikov. He received a scholarship from the Kazakhstan government to apply for his Master’s degree at USC which helped him in applying to programs focusing on public administration and planning, together with policy implementation.  He was thrilled to receive the Bolashak Scholarship, a governmental scholarship for young Kazakh professionals for study abroad. He chose the program at USC as it provided a combination of both on-campus education and local, hands-on professional experience. He values the flexibility the program affords him to include varied transportation related courses, and the opportunity to work at METRANS, which he finds to be an incredibly valuable experience. 

Abdykalikov heard about METRANS’ various programs at one of the METRANS events he attended and became quite interested in the work that METRANS does. “METRANS sessions are really helpful for the students and are a great opportunity to meet people from the industry who can bring something new to campus and share an inside perspective on the latest projects and trends in transportation. I am so happy that I have become a part of METRANS team, and I am very grateful to the director of IPPAM Dr. Joyce Mann and METRANS Associate Director Dr. Victoria Deguzman for the confidence and trust they place in me,” says Abdykalikov. He is currently in charge of METRANS event coordination and also serves as the lead writer for the METRANS student newsletter. He enjoys the experience of organizing and participating in transportation related events and meet different interesting people from USC.

In his spare time, Abdykalikov says, “I like swimming and soccer. I also enjoying listening to music, and I like listening to different genres of music.” After graduation, Adbykalikov is planning to return to his home country to continue his transportation career. He will bring back the valuable knowledge and experience he acquired while at USC and looks forward to working to develop the future transportation systems of his country.

We appreciate his valuable contributions to METRANS and look forward to seeing his future successes when he returns to Kazakhstan!