I nostri testimonials: Mirzoanis - Kyrgyzstan

About myself 

I am currently pursuing an MSc in Social Sciences and Digital Data at the University of Padua, but I would not describe myself as a traditional full-time student. Before coming to Italy, I completed a BA in International Journalism with Honours (GPA 4.81/5.00) and spent an Erasmus+ semester at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.
I have received five scholarships during my academic career, including Erasmus+ funding and the Italian Government’s MAECI Scholarship twice. Alongside university, I continue working professionally in digital communications, content management and CRM. I currently combine my studies with two remote roles and was recently promoted to Middle Content Specialist at RedCore Group.
My interests sit somewhere between journalism, digital markets, AI, politics, data and the way technology changes society. I speak three languages fluently and am currently developing three more. I have studied and worked across different countries and systems, so when other students ask me about scholarships, studying abroad, professional work or adapting to a new country, I usually try to give them the real version rather than the brochure version.

Why did you choose the University of Padua and our degree programme in Social Sciences and Digital Data. How did you learn about our institution? 

I started exactly where many ambitious applicants start: rankings.

I was looking at QS and THE and thinking that if I managed to enter the most prestigious university possible, the name itself would somehow make the rest of my career easier. Then I started reading actual curricula.

That changed everything.

My bachelor’s degree is in International Journalism, while most of my professional experience is in journalism, digital content, marketing, CRM and communications. I did not want another degree that would spend two years explaining communication theory I already knew from university and work. I also had no interest in academically proving that the sky is blue and water is wet just to collect another diploma.

I wanted to modernise my journalism background and connect it with what was already happening in my professional life: platforms, algorithms, AI, digital labour, data, automation and the political economy behind all of it.

I compared programmes at several major Italian universities and also had master’s offers abroad, including programmes in Auckland, Dublin, Brussels and Vienna. Some were strong programmes, but they were too broad for the problem I was trying to solve. I was not looking for a degree simply because “global studies” or “communication science” sounded respectable. I wanted something with a clear purpose.

That is how I found Social Sciences and Digital Data.

SSDD immediately looked different. Sociology, statistics, programming, AI, logic, politics and digital technologies were not separate decorative modules. They were part of the same programme. The fact that it was new made it even more interesting. I liked the idea of being among the first cohorts rather than entering a curriculum designed twenty years ago and repeatedly repackaged.

I also do not believe that a university degree automatically makes someone employable. A large part of my practical competence came from work, not lecture halls. Therefore, if I was going to spend two years on a master’s, it had to give me something professional experience alone could not: stronger analytical methods and a deeper understanding of the systems I was already working inside.

Padua and SSDD gave me the best combination of reputation, substance and relevance.

What are the main features of your degree programme?  

The easiest way I can describe SSDD is this: it does not allow you to hide forever inside whatever you are already good at.

For me, that is probably its strongest feature.

It is not simply an interdisciplinary programme; I would call it transdisciplinary. It is not sociology with a few fashionable words such as “AI” added to the syllabus, but it is also not a pure data-science programme where society is treated as an inconvenient source of messy variables.

During my first year, I moved between Digital Sociology, Digital Labour and Digital Politics, Statistics for Social and Digital Data, Logic and Foundations of Computability, Artificial Intelligence and Human Knowledge, and practical work with R and Python.

Coming from journalism, that transition can hit hard.

You can be very comfortable writing, analysing politics or discussing social theory, and then suddenly find yourself calculating regressions, debugging code or working through formal logic. You cannot talk your way around a Python script or a statistical problem. At some point you simply have to learn a different way of thinking.

That is exactly why I value the programme.

The modern labour market is rarely interested in what you would ideally prefer to do every day. It cares about what you can actually do, how quickly you can learn and whether you can adapt when the task changes. Today you may be writing content; tomorrow you may be analysing data, automating a workflow or trying to understand why an algorithm behaves strangely.

SSDD trains that flexibility.

The programme also refuses the lazy “technology good versus technology bad” discussion. We look at where data come from, how algorithms and platforms are constructed, who controls them, how digital labour works, how AI changes authority and decision-making, and what political and social consequences follow.

That matters to me professionally because I work inside digital markets every day. University gives me concepts and methods; work gives me the chance to test whether those concepts survive contact with reality.

SSDD is difficult at times. I do not think that is a defect. The whole point is that by the end, subjects that once looked foreign should no longer scare you.

How has your experience been so far? What aspects of our university’s culture or values have resonated with you the most? 

My experience has been demanding and, because of that, very productive.

I arrived with years of experience in journalism, writing and digital communications, but much less formal preparation in statistics, programming and logic. Those subjects forced me outside an already established professional mindset.

By the end of my first year, I had completed around half of the 120-ECTS programme while continuing to work remotely in two professional roles. During the same period, I completed the University of Padua’s Global Citizenship Programme, participated in SSDD and university activities, completed the EducationUSA GSAP programme and was promoted professionally.

So no, my first year was not even close to quiet and relaxed.

What I value most at Padua is the possibility to build an individual path rather than wait for somebody to design one for you.

I care a lot about intellectual independence. For me, that is not an abstract university slogan. I have lived and worked in environments where journalism, political disagreement and refusing to repeat an approved narrative could create consequences much more serious than an uncomfortable seminar discussion. Once you have seen that side of institutions, the ability to question an idea openly stops looking ordinary.

I also do not romanticise internationalism.

Put people from twenty different countries in one room and you do not automatically create harmony. Sometimes you create arguments about politics, religion, history and values. That is normal. Real international education, in my view, is not pretending that everybody is basically the same. It is learning how to work with people who are not the same without demanding that they abandon their identity, culture or principles.

This is also one reason I enjoy living in Italy. Italy has an enormous cultural and historical identity, and I respect societies that understand the value of preserving that identity while still cooperating internationally.

At Padua, I feel that if you work, ask questions, find the right people and ignore unnecessary noise, nobody prevents you from building something serious for yourself.

That matters to me much more than slogans.

What advice would you give to prospective students when it comes to preparing a successful application? 

First: stop worshipping rankings.

I say this as somebody who originally did exactly that.

QS, THE and other rankings are useful for creating a shortlist. After that, open the curriculum and actually read it. Ask yourself: 

• How exactly will this programme improve your current profile?
• What will you know after two years that you do not know now?
• How does it connect to your previous education, your weaknesses and your next professional step?

If you cannot answer those questions, a famous university name will not magically create a strategy for you.

I have gone through many international admissions and scholarship processes. I have received five scholarships, including Erasmus+ and MAECI twice, and I was admitted to master’s programmes in Ireland, Austria, Belgium, New Zealand and Italy.

One lesson became very clear: a strong application needs a story, not just a random list of past achievements or promises to be good.

Your CV, motivation letter, grades, work experience and supporting documents should make the same argument from different angles: “this is what I have already done”, “this is what I am missing”, “this is why this programme fills that gap”, and “this is what I intend to do afterwards.”

Remember to be specific. Everybody is “passionate” in a motivation letter. Evidence? Many letters and CVs don’t have it.

For example, if you say you care about journalism, show what you published. If you care about research, show the project. If you care about international education, show what you actually did internationally. If you say you are hardworking, give the committee something that proves it.

If the same motivation letter can be sent unchanged to ten universities, it is not really a motivation letter. It is essentially spam with a greeting.

Start preparing documents early. Scholarships, translations, legalisation, visas and university procedures are rarely quick: bureaucracy is not a friend, especially if you are an international student. Grind through different sources, from official ones to Reddit chats. You will gradually learn to filter out spam; just don’t succumb to noise and panic.

And do not try to look flawless.

Scholarship and admission committees do not need another superhero biography. They need to understand your direction. Show what you can already do, admit what you still need to learn and make it obvious why this particular opportunity is the logical next step.

What advice would you give to students thinking of studying in Italy? How have you settled in here?  

The first thing I would tell anyone is that studying in English and living in Italy are two different things.

Your programme may be entirely in English. Your landlord, neighbour, doctor, delivery driver, public office or the person trying to explain something important to you may not be.

Learn Italian.

You do not need to speak like Dante, but even basic Italian changes everyday life enormously. I completed A1 after arriving and continued studying afterwards, and every additional piece of the language makes you less dependent on other people.

Second: start looking for accommodation early and grind through different agencies. Housing can be brutal in student cities. Do not assume that because you have admission and money, a suitable room will magically appear two weeks before arrival.

Third: treat bureaucracy like a project. Visa, residence permit, university enrolment, insurance, tax documents, contracts: keep copies of all this, save important emails, track dates and ask the responsible office when something is unclear. Complaining that the system is confusing does not make the deadline disappear.

My own settlement in Italy was gradual.

I did not arrive with parents financing my life, relatives living nearby or a family safety net waiting if something went wrong. I had scholarship support and professional work, but I also knew that if I mismanaged money, deadlines, housing or my job, there was nobody behind me who would fix the problem.

That changes how you approach studying abroad.

I built my routine around university, two jobs, language courses, the gym, projects and administrative responsibilities. It worked, but there was a price.

Sometimes that price was social life.

There were periods when my personal life was genuinely lonely because there simply were not enough hours left for making friends, having coffees and spritzes with classmates or just having casual conversations. Most students have time for at least some of that. I had to sacrifice a lot of it.

Ambition has a bill, unfortunately. Sometimes you pay with time. Sometimes with sleep. Sometimes with comfort. Sometimes with being alone while other people are having fun. It can be painful, but that is the path I chose and the price I pay for it.

If you choose a demanding path, do not act shocked when sacrifice eventually arrives.

At the same time, I would not romanticise Italy, nor would I become cynical about it after the first bureaucratic problem. Learn how the country works, respect its culture, build your routine and give yourself enough time to stop feeling like a visitor.

That is when living abroad starts to feel like real life rather than survival.

What do you like to do when you are not studying? How do you like to spend your free time? 

The slightly funny answer is that between university and two jobs, “free time” is sometimes more of a theoretical concept.

But when I have it, I try to spend it on things that actually disconnect me from all the stress.

Physical activity is probably the most important one. I train regularly at the gym, enjoy martial arts and use wellness activities such as the sauna or swimming to reset after spending too many hours in front of a laptop.

Considering that I do not have any friends to travel with, I am not a huge fan of travelling. I can afford it, but all the logistics around hotels and tickets can be stressful, and I already have enough on my plate with my current lifestyle. The prospect of taking photos in front of the Eiffel Tower, on top of the Empire State Building or beside Big Ben does not particularly appeal to me: I hate social media, and I am not someone who feels a need to document every memory. Therefore, I travel only when I genuinely want to go somewhere.

I follow football and Formula 1, enjoy serious action and thriller films, and usually prefer story-driven video games when I have enough time to disappear into one properly.

Languages are another long-term interest. I continue improving my Italian, Dutch and German. I am a huge patriot of the Netherlands, and this wonderful country has a special place in my heart.

I am also very interested in animals, nature and environmental issues. Give me a good conservation park, wildlife centre or a place where I can spend a day outdoors and I will probably choose that over another networking event.

In general, because so much of my academic and professional life is digital, I appreciate free time most when it feels completely different from sitting behind a laptop.