Shakhzoda Mirakova is a sophomore at American University of Central Asia (Bishkek,

Kyrgyzstan) majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications. She is a YLP (Youth

Leadership Program) alumna with a diverse background in project management and leadership.Within the framework of this program, she implemented her ecological initiative, EcoChange, where 100 volunteers have been involved to find homes for 250 trees in Bukhara. Moreover, Shakhzoda spent one semester in the University of Montevallo, Alabama, as a part of Global UGRAD (Undergraduate Exchange) program. In February 2023 she was selected as a fully funded scholar to represent Uzbekistan at an annual Harvard Conference for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) in Boston, Massachusetts. Her main area of interest is telling the stories of marginalized communities of Uzbekistan and Central Asia. So far she has released her first documentary about freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan,”The Price of Freedom”, which received several awards from OSUN network. Currently, she is working on her second documentary about the Lost Jewish Heritage, where she is developing her skills in case study development and storytelling.