For Professor Liliya Sarkisyan of Baitursynuly University's Department of Psychology, her journey here started with a choir.
Although, at that time, the university was known as the Kostanay State Pedagogical Institute, and Liliya Vaganovna was just a 16-year-old high school graduate.
The year 1966 was particularly challenging for applicants due to educational reforms, which doubled the number of graduates by combining those from 10-year and 11-year school programs.
Preference in admissions was given to rural graduates, and despite scoring 18 out of 20 possible points on her exams, Liliya Vaganovna narrowly missed admission.
It was the first and most serious blow to her hopes. Or, at least, it felt that way at the time.
“I was applying to the Department of Foreign Languages,” she recalls. “When I found out I didn’t make it, I threw my folder of certificates and commendatory letters onto the windowsill and wept bitterly. I thought no one was watching, but it turned out the Dean of the Russian Philology Faculty was just behind the door to his office.”
“Why are you crying?” - stepped out the Dean. Unable to reply, she watched as he glanced over a a certificate from art school, where she had studied piano…
This chance encounter marked the beginning of a more than half-a-century journey. The Dean introduced himself and asked:
“How about you organize a choir for our faculty?” ⠀
- Of course, - she replied without hesitation, though she had no idea how to go about it.
The promise, however, was made, and she was enrolled—not as a full student, but as a candidate. Candidates were auditors who could earn a student spot if they achieved good grades and if someone dropped out. But how fierce was the competition.
Liliya Sarkisyan immediately got to work. Since the philology department was all girls, the dean included history students in the choir. Time was short, as they needed to perform by the 7th of November, the anniversary of the October Revolution.
On the day of the gig, the choir received thunderous applause and Liliya was admitted as a full-fledged student. Even before her first exams, she fully immersed herself in student life.
“But don’t think life smiled on me just because I organized a choir,” she disagrees. “All the painstaking work—on myself and with the group—stayed behind the scenes. Fortunately, I had excellent classmates who became my close friends, with whom I’m still in touch even to this day.”
After graduation, Liliya Vaganovna stayed to work here as a teacher. Her boundless energy took her in new directions.
The administration entrusted her with some of the most challenging educational tasks—organizing, establishing, and launching new programs.
“We even opened the first ever Faculty of Psychology in Kazakhstan! Before that, other universities only had psychology departments,” she says with pride. “But despite all the work, the idea of a choir stayed with me.”
In 1999, the Faculty of Psychology formed a choir and started to sing again. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic brought this initiative to a halt.
“Still, I hope we’ll get back to it. It is my dream to revive the choir on the 86th anniversary of our university, to have a chance to sing once more.”
