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03/16/2022 08:30 AMLike so many before them, Wahid Nabiz and his wife immigrated to the United States in search of a new and better life. Their move to Connecticut from Uzbekistan, a country in Central Asia that used to be part of the Soviet union, in September 2000 started out with difficulties, but two decades later the couple works at Yale University, are raising a family, and they enjoy all that the Connecticut shoreline has to offer. And the people of East Haven also benefit from Wahid’s work at Hagaman Memorial Library.
“When I was 17 years old, I left my hometown and went to [the] USSR in 1986 for undergrad and grad school,” Wahid says of his early history. “My major was electrical engineering. I lived in [the] Central Asian part of [the] USSR, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which became independent on Sept. 1 of 1991.”
Following his graduation with a master’s degree in electrical power station, Wahid applied for the Ph.D. program in electrical vibration machines. While entrenched in his doctoral studies, Wahid and his wife were awarded refugee status from the United Nations.
“Their office was in Tashkent,” Wahid explains. “They helped refugee students from Central Asia to emigrate to other countries.”
While authorities in Uzbekistan would not give refugee status to Wahid and his wife, the couple was able to remain in the capital city of Tashkent because of their student visas. And then, just two months before earning his doctorate, the chance arrived for the couple to leave for the United States, so they took it.
“When I came to Connecticut, where we were sponsored to come, I didn’t know [the] English language,” Wahid recalls. “With no family or friends, we started our life with [the] $200 we had with us.”
The Nabizes were the first of their contemporaries to come to Connecticut.
“The IRIS office in New Haven [wasn’t] as big [or] as supportive as they are now,” Wahid notes. “We struggled and suffered a lot. Stress and anxiety were part of our lives till 2002.”
Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) is a non-profit agency that helps refugees and other displaced people establish new lives.
As part of settling into a new life in America, Wahid began studying English, and two months later the refugee office found a job for him in a plastic factory.
While very thankful to have the job and a regular paycheck, Wahid admits, “I said to myself, ‘This is not the place for me to work while I have a master’s degree and [an] almost PhD.’”
So, he enrolled in more English classes at Gateway Community College and also approached the University of New Haven with his college transcript from the USSR.
“The advisor told me that I could start a master’s program in electrical engineering,” he recalls.
Taking that advice to heart, Wahid enrolled and completed his electrical engineering studies in 2005.
Despite his new degree, Wahid said he had no luck finding a job in Connecticut and his wife didn’t want to move to another state.
“So, I went to apply for the library science program at Southern Connecticut State University,” Wahid recalls.
“During my years at Southern, I got a part-time job at [the] New Haven Free Public Library. In 2009 I also got a part-time job at [the] Yale Center for Language Study. I was teaching grad and undergrad Dari and Pushto languages. When I graduated with my library science degree, I became [a] librarian at [the] New Haven Free Public Library,” says Wahid.
While working that new library job in New Haven, Wahid learned about the head of technical position at Hagaman Memorial Library. He filled out the application then visited Hagaman with his children in tow.
“I found the library staff very friendly and lots of patrons in the library. My kids were able to use the computers and read small books and the children’s librarians were very nice [to my children]. I liked the place very much,” Wahid recalls.
After that cordial visit to Hagaman, Wahid was still filled with doubt about his employment prospects and wondered if he would be called for an interview. So, he applied for a library job at Yale University, which required Slavic language skills. While waiting to hear from Yale, he was offered the job at Hagaman.
Things were finally shaping up. Yet a dilemma developed in the meantime. A month after starting his job at Hagaman, he was offered the Yale University job. With these two new jobs available to him, Wahid resigned from the New Haven Free Public Library but found it difficult to resign from Hagaman.
“During the month I worked [at Hagaman] I began to love the place, the staff, the library patrons, and the job that I was doing,” Wahid says. “I wanted to help and use my skills and to stay so I asked the library director, Mr. George Bruce, to allow me to work part-time. Mr. George was very supportive and kind to give me the opportunity. I am very happy and fortunate that I work in two different types of libraries. Both libraries are unique.”
At Hagaman, Wahid leads the technical department. At Yale’s Technical Service Department, Wahid works as the lead acquisition assistant handling their monographic processing services, monographic supplies ordering, and non-Latin script receipt and cataloging. And he also works with the library’s Slavic and Near East collection.
“It’s over 20 years that [I’ve lived] in Connecticut with my wife and two kids. My hobbies are reading (news only) gardening, work, and cooking. When I ask my 11 year-old daughter about my hobbies, she says, ‘Work, work, work, and work followed by reading the news,’” Wahid says with a laugh.
After Wahid and his wife settled in Connecticut, he had the good fortune to be joined by one of his three brothers who arrived in the United States through U.S. Army connections.
“Now I also have my brother’s family here too,” he says.
“We like living in Connecticut. We’ve found friends that [have] become like family members for us,” Wahid concludes. “My son wants to become a neurosurgeon and he focuses on [his] medical career studies. He is an honor student in his school, and he would love to go to Yale for undergrad and grad. This means that we will stay in Connecticut.”