Unsung Hero – Ms Olga Jivtsova

Ms Olga started working at BST 3 months ago. She is the friendly face many students, parents and teachers see at our busy Kalandar campus. Ms Olga looks like a fairy, sounds like a mermaid and has nerves of steel. This means she is the voice of reason and wisdom in any crisis and calmly helps us see the opportunity in every challenge.

Ms Olga was born in Bekabad, Tashkent region, which is popular due to the work gained from the large metallurgical plant. Ms Olga’s mother was a couturier who worked with famous designer Vyacheslav Zaytcev, and turned his fantastic designs into reality. Growing up, Ms Olga was the eldest of four beautiful sisters, who modeled her mother’s work and her dream was to be a fashion designer too. However, as she gained more work experience, she realized that she was not so talented with needle and pencil, although she excelled at embroidery and art.

As dreams of a life in fashion bit the dust, Ms Olga realized she had an immense talent for languages. Ms Olga is fluent in Russian, English, German and pretty good at Uzbek and French too. Therefore, she decided to move to Tashkent and study English Philology at the Uzbek State World Languages University and pursue a career in interpreting for the United Nations.

At the time, Ms Olga wanted to financially support herself and be independent. Therefore, as well as studying she found a job as a “paging girl” with Uzbek American JV Radio Page Semurg. Hence, clients would call her office and ask her and her colleagues to type their messages into the paging system. One day, Ms Olga received a call from a client and whilst handling the query was asked out on a date by Mr Stanislav. It was a risk but she thought there would be no harm in meeting him for a coffee and was glad she did as he was exactly her type. Within 9 months of meeting they were married and will soon celebrate their 24th anniversary.

Following her marriage and the birth of her son Vladimir, Ms Olga was persuaded to go into teaching by a Professor who recognised her talents. She then started her career as an English Teacher at the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies for age 18+. After 13 years, Ms Olga became frustrated with corruption in the education system and sought a new challenge. Hence, she joined a private language school where she taught English to age 14-50. Even during lockdown, Ms Olga taught English online and maintained a loyal cohort of excellent students.

Ms Olga then joined BST as she wanted to be part of something bigger and join the globally recognized Nord Anglia family. She was also tempted by the opportunity to work with the expat community. Ms Olga has excellent organisational skills, fantastic attention to detail and brilliant customer service – these qualities make her indispensable at BST. So far, Ms Olga has also found the BST community of parents, teachers and students to be very welcoming and helpful.

Ms Olga, has two sons who are her pride and joy. Vladimir is 23 and studying Public Relations in Russia. Valeriy is 17 and would like to study Law in the future. Ms Olga loves to dance and is excellent at ballroom dancing. In her spare time, she dotes on her 8 year old cat Masha and on weekends visits her dog Rocky and her parents in Bekabad. Ms Olga’s dream is to be a member of the famous Russian modern ballet group, Todes lead by Alla Dukhova. So don’t be surprised if you see her on the stage soon.