Meet Beisen Ussenov, METRANS Career Opportunities Editor and second-year master’s student in International Public Policy and Management (IPPAM). Ussenov is originally from Karaganda City, a city with a population of 450,000 in the northwest of Kazakhstan. Ussenov is a recipient of the Bolashak Scholarship, awarded from the Kazakh government for master’s degree studies in the United States. Upon completion of his Master’s program, Ussenov will return to his position as Deputy Mayor for Housing, Utilities, and Amenities in the Kazybek Bi-District of Karaganda City, a position he has held since 2012. Despite a diverse student body at USC, Ussenov’s story is remarkably unique, based on his incredible breadth of experience working in the Kazakh government at the national, regional, and local levels.

Starting in 2009, Ussenov spent three years with the Republic of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport and Communication where he participated in massive national projects, such as the Western Europe-Western China Highway that spans 1,700 miles of Kazakh territory, ultimately connecting Lianyungang, China, with St. Petersburg, Russia. Although he appreciates the experience he gained in law-making, international finance, and geopolitics, he wanted to work more closely and directly to influence people’s lives.

In February 2012, he accepted an offer to join the Karaganda regional government as an adviser, where he worked on a vast range of projects and traveled broadly. “One week, I was working with miners and metallurgists to improve labor conditions, and the next week I was working with the depositors of a major bank that went bankrupt,” he shared. “At the same time, a new apartment building collapsed, and it was incredibly complicated to help people who were without a home. Here I realized that to work at the regional level, it is necessary to have a diversified skill set and be ready to solve non-standard problems in different areas.”

In August of the same year, Ussenov was promoted to Deputy Mayor for Housing, Utilities, and Amenities in his hometown of Karaganda City. There, he quickly realized that local government was a profound challenge, often requiring 13-hour days to address all the pressing local issues. “Imagine fires, gas explosions, and the grief and aggression of people who lost relatives and homes. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to run the office with employees who receive low wages and no benefits.” Often, he found himself needing to go beyond the scope of his duties to help people in need. Reflecting on his experience in government, he shared, “Looking back, the Ministry was heaven, the Regional Government was the Earth, but local government is an underground, the hell.”

Despite these difficulties, Ussenov is highly motivated to return to his position as Deputy Mayor. For Ussenov, local government offers the opportunity to tangibly solve infrastructure problems, to improve his city’s living conditions, and to interact directly with citizens. “People quickly respond for even small things, and I get immense pleasure from a sincere human.”

Before coming to USC, Ussenov received a Bachelor’s degree in Law at Karaganda University, a Master’s degree in Jurisprudence from the Kazakh University of Humanities and Law, and a Master’s degree in Social Knowledge from the Presidential Academy of Public Administration. He also completed the Executive Development Program in Public Policy and Management from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. In addition to his experience in government, Ussenov also spent several years as a teacher of civil law and working as a corporate lawyer.

At METRANS, Ussenov works as the Career Opportunities Editor, researching and compiling job openings, internships, and fellowships for distribution in the student newsletter. Outside of school, Ussenov enjoys playing table tennis and the dombra, a traditional Kazakh string instrument. His simple advice to current students, “Enjoy your time at USC!”.