Only several years ago we were lucky to count a handful of César Ritz Colleges’ alumni coming from or working in Kazakhstan. Today, coupled with the emergence of this fascinating country, Kazakhstan, is fast becoming home to one of our largest alumni chapters. Over 30 alumni now regularly get together to reminisce and network. Recently when Area Manager Viwan Opanukij was in Kazakhstan, she met up with alumni in both Almaty and Astana, the two largest cities in the country, and gave us this report.

"Almaty was the former capital of Kazakhstan and is the financial centre of the country. While visiting there, the reunion was held at the L’Affiche Restaurant. It was a nice turnout attended by the following alumni: Kamila Zhailaubayeva, Akmaral Sapanova, Aidar Albekov, Zhanna Meirembayeva, Aknur Kuntay, Ainur Kuanyshbekova, Raushan Kassymova, Dinaraa Jingilbayev, Yerlen Yermatov and Assel Sheriyazdanova. Talking with those present, it seemed many are doing very well in their chosen career paths. Aidar and Yerlan are starting up their own businesses while others are working for local Kazakh companies including Aknur, who is a director of a tour agency, and Assel, who works as an event manager. And in an interesting coincidence, Aizhan, Kamila and Ainur are all working for the national airline, Air Astana, in various departments and putting to use the skills and knowledge learnt while at César Ritz Colleges.

Astana is the new capital and governmental centre for Kazakhstan and it is here that we also have a large group of alumni living and working. For our reunion, we had Anar Zhumakhanova, Dinara Alipbayeva, Dana Karbayeva, Ainur Kenebayeva, Anar Baibolova, Azamat Suyundikov, Nurtolkyn Dadikbayeva and Bekzat Syzdykov attending the event. During the reunion I found out about yet another César Ritz romance, this time between Tolkyn and Bekzat! The two met while students at César Ritz Colleges and, last April, were finally married. Bekzat is currently working in the accounts department at the Rixos Hotel in Astana while Tolkyn is working in the administration side of education.  Also working in education are Anar Zhumakhanova and Azamat who are working for Nazarbayev University but in different department-Anar in human resources and Azamat in events.

Attending these sorts of reunions is always wonderful as I get to catch up with our alumni to reminisce about our days as students at César Ritz Colleges and also get to know what is happening in their lives and careers. On this trip, I also got to meet the next generation of potential César Ritz students-Aidar’s daughter and Azamat’s daughter! Both these girls were born when their fathers were students at César Ritz Colleges. It was an honor for me to finally meet the daughters as previously I had only seen them in the photos their proud fathers carried."