Valera Notes

Looking for someone who can help us set up a conference room for hybrid events. Our team is spread across multiple continents and time zones, so we need a reliable setup with cameras, microphones, speakers, and conferencing equipment. Does anyone know a person or company who specializes in hybrid meeting/event setups? @valeranotes

Stop normalizing this. There is hardly a single family in our country that does not have at least one great-grandfather who fought against Nazism. This is not a joke. We are talking about a legacy built on millions of casualties. This is not harmless humor or "just a meme." It reflects either ignorance or a complete failure to understand the weight of our history. You are supposedly our future intellectual elite. Wake up. @valeranotes

🎓 The photo above is one of our special communities - for Presidential School students. Every summer, PS students from all across Uzbekistan come to Tashkent to study for the SAT during their break. They arrive with a tight deadline and one target: 1500+, to be done with the SAT once and for all. So SATashkent builds special groups for them - where students from every region race the same August deadline together. We do it this way for a reason. PS students carry a heavy load during the school year, so summer is their window - and people rise fastest when they're surrounded by peers who think, work, and score at their level or higher. The ego gets touched. The competitive instinct kicks in. They push harder. They reach higher. That's why, every year, we keep this tradition: a group built from strong backgrounds, competing internally to pull out their highest potential in just two months.

📍Tashkent, Uzbekistan @valeranotes

Our First Business Consulting Project My friend from finance, a Freshman alumna, and I just completed our first business consulting project. We developed a financial model, presentation, and business plan for a serious investment project. The best part is that we completed the work in around three days, working from Papa John’s and Mama Varit Kofe through the night, while still delivering a very solid result. It was a great honor to receive this message from our client:

“Valera, hello! Thank you for not refusing to help us. You and your team did an enormous amount of work in a very short time. You are true professionals. I hope everything works out for us, and thank you for caring about our success. We truly appreciate your willingness to support us until the very end.”

It feels refreshing to put my university knowledge to full use. Hopefully, more projects to come. @valeranotes

“Only after studying at Harvard did I fully appreciate Freshman’s approach to education.” Had a great meeting yesterday with Azizbek (@azizbekzaylobiddinov), a good friend and former student. Fascinating to see how much he has grown through Harvard’s liberal arts education in just one year. And this is just the beginning. @valeranotes

Beyond Survivalism Pursuing ambitious projects sometimes means losing yourself in the rat race of tasks, unexpected emergencies, and guilt when something goes wrong. Every morning may feel like our ancient forefathers waking up in the jungle, knowing they must fight fearlessly just to survive the day. College felt similar. But there, at least, you had support resources and people who could relate. From last August to now, I have had the worst streak of workaholism in my life. You can see the fruits of this effort, of course. But at some point, you ask yourself: how sustainable is it? When you do not have time to have lunch, where will you find the time to read a book, do sports, or write a reflective post like this? My younger brother, Sega, has started a Meditation Club. Maybe I should start there. Different as we are, I have so much to learn from him, more than I sometimes realize. @valeranotes

Freshman Alumni Network ahah

In China, some admissions companies pay Ivy admits to claim that they worked with them. Industrial-level scamming. If you let new-age admissions guru kids run wild without accountability, we will have the same situation here soon. @valeranotes

Ivy cases? Who give him? We have to check this moment. Ivy cases are the new Gogol’s “dead souls.” Everyone seems to have them. Nobody knows where they came from. @valeranotes

New Senior Position at Freshman https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4421558149/

Anonymous SAT Program Feedback We have just launched SAT Freshman after years of not teaching SAT, and I was mind-blown by students’ anonymous feedback. Out of 12 students who participated in the survey, 100% said they would recommend the program to a friend. The average teacher score is 4.8/5, which is incredibly high for an anonymous survey. And that is before the students could fully take advantage of the Freshman Alumni Network. Absolutely, do check out SAT Freshman:

Freshman Alumni Council We are building an autonomous student union within Freshman and supporting it with our network and resources. These are some of the most talented students I know. Excited for their plans for June. We will try to open up the events as much as possible, so follow the updates. @valeranotes

🎙 Episode 2: Nigel Li on Russian vs. American education, working in Washington, and moving to Uzbekistan. Coming tomorrow. @freshmanblog x @valeranotes