Sarver Tadjikhodjayev (Sam) was born and raised in Uzbekistan, where he grew up for most of his life. He came to the United States in 2008 in search of an education to pursue his dream of owning his own business. Four years later he opened his first business, Fox's Pizza Den, in Nashville after attending the $$Nashville Campus for one year. This past spring, he graduated with his associate's degree in business management, and it's been the fulfillment of one dream (getting an education) and just the beginning of a new one (owning his own business) for Sam.
Sam said, "I've been in some other schools and I realized it wasn't what I was looking for – so I decided to come back to National College." What made the difference to Sam were the people: "The thing I like about National College is the staff is really friendly, helpful, and I really like the way the classes are taught." In considering other larger universities Sam says that he saw from his friends' experiences how hard it was for them to get in contact with the administration and staff. "It's hard to get personalized attention up there," said Sam. "I like that you can get that here."
Sam wasn't a "traditional student" who comes straight from high school and stays in school full-time. Owning his own business, trying to do well in school, and manage his life as an adult meant that he needed to take a year off in between and couldn't finish his degree straight through. However, Sam felt that the year off solidified for him his choice for coming back to National to finish his degree.
"The instructors are great," he said and added how his Human Resources class made a difference for him in owning his business. He learned about how to manage his staff and about laws concerning hiring and paying his staff members. "Because I'm from a different country, it helped me learn how it's done here," said Sam. "That's why I decided to go for this major – because I wanted more knowledge and experience in this field to run my business more efficiently." He found that not only did he get that knowledge and experience at National, but he felt like he was part of a community as well. "Most of [my classmates] were my friends," he says with a smile.
Looking forward, Sam has plans of opening more locations for his pizza business and perhaps pursuing more school. "I was thinking of maybe going for a master's degree too," he said, and is considering the option of pursuing that degree online at American National University since it is directly linked to his degree at National. For now, however, he is focusing on applying his current knowledge to building on his dream of owning his own business and seeing it grow.
In 2008, Sarver Tadjikhodjayev (Sam) came to the United States in search of an education to pursue his dream of owning his own business.
