Success Story: Ayumi Lopes...
Ayumi Lopes is balancing study, work, parenting, and peer tutoring while building a future in business and fintech.
Success Story: Evgeny Galkin
Evgeny Galkin has spent more than a decade working in IT product management across Russia and Southeast Asia. Now, he is building on that experience through postgraduate study in New Zealand.
“I’m from the very heart of Russia, Siberia. It’s one of the coldest areas in the world. I’ve experienced temperatures below -50 Celsius. But it’s beautiful at the same time,” he says.
Evgeny has worked as an IT product manager for more than a decade across different digital companies and IT products, both in Russia and internationally.
He says one of his most rewarding experiences was working for an international ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia.
“It’s the best feeling when you can see that you directly helped the company increase income by hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
When he decided to take the next step professionally by undertaking a master’s degree, he was intentional about choosing a programme that aligned with his career goals.
“I wanted it to be an extension of my current profession. The Master of Applied Management specialising in Business Information Systems looked exactly like what I needed to take my product management expertise to the next level.”
One of the highlights of studying at AIC has been the combination of academic learning and practical application.
“In each assessment report, we have to approach it from an academic perspective, but also apply real knowledge, practice, and problem-solving to a real company. It really widened my understanding.”
He says the academic side of study was challenging at first because he considers himself more practical than theoretical.
“I’m very practical. I don’t like theoretical approaches and prefer building and experimenting.”
At first, he struggled to enjoy the assessment reports, but with support from his lecturer, everything eventually clicked into place.
Evgeny says studying at AIC has broadened his perspectives. He was recently awarded an Excellent Scholars Award for achieving top marks in his programme.
“I’d love to use my new knowledge and skills in new technologies within the New Zealand IT industry, or help bring new technologies into non-IT companies. That would be a nice contribution to New Zealand and local organisations from me.”
His advice for new students is to take every learning opportunity seriously from day one.
“Sometimes, small details in class can shape your future decisions in life.”
