Nigina Karimova

For years, Nigina Karimova worked in the Diamond District on 47th Street in New York, but her professional clarity was lacking. While she was successful in sales, her mind was often miles away, reminiscing about the teenager who used to take apart TVs and game consoles just to see how they worked.

“I was always the one fixing my friends’ computers,” Nigina says. “I had the interest, but I never thought it was a path for me. I had a paralegal degree; I was in sales. Tech felt like a hobby I left behind.”

Realizing that the world was moving faster toward digital than ever before, Nigina decided to stop selling and start building. She found an ad for Per Scholas, and the tinkerer from her youth saw a way into a new career.

Entering the NYC Commonpoint Satellite campus program was challenging in every sense of the word. For Nigina, the biggest hurdle wasn’t just the logic of the motherboards—it was the language of the industry.

“English is not my native language,” Nigina explains. “In IT, you aren’t just learning concepts; you’re learning a whole new vocabulary of acronyms and technical jargon. It’s fast. It’s intense.”

Instead of letting the language barrier become a wall, Nigina used the NYC Satellite campus resources as a bridge. The smaller, community-focused environment of the Satellite sites meant she wasn’t just a number. She had mentors who brought decades of Per Scholas wisdom to the table — holding her hand through the most complex modules.

“Once I put my thoughts into it, everything became easier,” she says. “The Satellite team is there for the community. They don’t just teach; they guide.”

Nigina’s Per Scholas journey didn’t end with a graduation ceremony. In fact, her story was just beginning. Her persistence caught the eye of the very team that trained her. She stayed connected, constantly asking questions and staying in the loop, which led to an offer to work at Per Scholas. 

She quickly rose to the rank of Teaching Fellow, a role that brought her journey full circle. Nigina went from being one of the learners struggling with acronyms to a leader ensuring no one else struggled alone.

The impact of her learner-first perspective became undeniable during a recent cohort. Nigina pushed her learners with the same empathy her instructors had shown her. When the results came in, the room was electric: a 100% pass rate! Every single one of her learners had been certified.

“They threw a surprise party for me,” Nigina says, her voice filling with emotion. “They brought food and gifts, and I actually cried a little bit. I know exactly how it feels to be in their shoes, doubting if you can do it. Seeing them succeed makes me proud of myself and them.”

Nigina doesn’t just teach technical skills; she models the grit required to survive the NYC tech scene. She often tells her learners about a peer who applied to endless jobs, facing rejection after rejection, only to land a 6-figure role in D.C.

It’s this New York hustle that she brings to the Cloud and the Cybersecurity tracks she’s now pursuing. Even with a full-time job at Per Scholas, Nigina is constantly upskilling, recently renewing her CompTIA A+ and earning her AWS certification. She’s already eyeing the CySA+ for her next move.

“Tech is never boring because it’s always evolving,” she says. “We’re always debating with fellow workers about the best brands or the newest cloud tech. It keeps you on your toes.”

She has traded the glittering diamonds of Midtown for something more permanent:

• The confidence to lead
• The skills to build
• The opportunity to watch her learners’ lives change just as hers did

For Nigina, the NYC Satellite campus didn’t offer just a program—it was the place where she decided to chase the dream she’d been holding since she was a girl.