Teaching from Parwan to California: A Conversation with Liza, TAO Alumna

Liza Khuram is a former Teach for Afghanistan Fellow from Parwan Province. After years of teaching in Afghan schools, she relocated to the United States in the early 2021s. Today she works as a Lead Teacher in California, where she is also pursuing her majors in business and computer science. We sat down with her to hear her story.

Tell us a little about where you come from and what drew you to teaching in the first place.

I am from Parwan Province. I come from a family that really valued education, even though my mother herself did not have the chance to be formally educated. My brothers and my father were the ones who encouraged me, who pushed me to study and to keep going. I am the youngest girl in the family, after seven brothers, and they raised me with so much love and support. 

After I graduated from Al-Beroni University with a degree in English Literature, I went to Kabul to keep studying at Kardan Institute, to improve my English speaking. And while I was looking for work, I started teaching. First privately, from home, for little ones and girls who wanted to learn English. And then I went with my father to the Department of Education to ask about work. They hired me as a substitute teacher in a boys' middle school in Parwan. I was the first woman to teach in that school. It was outside the city, in a place where people were not exactly supportive of women being in that role. Seventh, eighth, ninth grade boys, all teenagers. It was hard, but I did it.

I have always been someone who wants to learn, to grow, and to explore new skills. Teaching was never just a job for me.

How did you start your journey with Teach for Afghanistan and what made you apply?

After that year at the boys' school, I saw the application for Teach for Afghanistan and I filled it out. I passed the test and the interview and they placed me at a girls' female high school, in the mornings. In the afternoons I was still going back to the boys' school as a substitute. And in the early mornings, before school started, I was teaching my private students at home. I was teaching all day, every day, and I loved every bit of it. 

That is the only way I can describe it. That is why I was so excited for a teaching fellowship.

What did the fellowship actually give you, beyond the classroom experience?

So much. The training and seminars that TAO organized were not just about how to teach. They were about how to carry yourself, how to communicate, how to lead. It also taught me how to be creative in the classroom with limited resources. I went into my classes feeling prepared and confident because of that.

I remember one event, the last big event I attended with TAO, where companies came and met with fellows for potential job opportunities. I was asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for the whole event. I had never done anything like that before and I had just come out of a surgery. But I said yes, because that is who I am. I always want to explore new skills. Standing up there and doing that, I remember thinking: Liza, you can be a leader. You can do this. You can grow beyond what you imagined. That moment still stays with me. The confidence I built there, the ability to speak in front of people, to coordinate, to give interviews, those are the skills that have carried me through everything that came after.

Were there moments during the fellowship that were emotionally difficult?

Yes. There was a girl I interviewed during one of our community programs. She talked about her stepmother, about how she was not being allowed to come to school. She covered her face while she spoke. She was crying. And I just wished, with everything in me, that I could do more. That I could pull her out of that situation.

There are so many girls like her. Sometimes it is the men in the family. Sometimes it is the women. And facing that, seeing it up close, it takes something out of you. But it also made me more determined.

I also worked with families directly, going to them, talking to them, encouraging them to send their daughters to school. I remember specific girls whose family situations I helped navigate. Those memories are in a corner of my heart.

And what about the community of fellows around you? Did you feel supported?

Very much so. We helped each other throughout the Fellowship. This includes other Fellows in my cohort, my Fellow coaches, the provincial lead, the staff…all of us could lean on each other for support. The bond you build with your cohort is real. I am still in touch with many of them today, across continents! That network does not go away when the fellowship ends.

How did those experiences follow you when you left Afghanistan?

While preparing to move to the United States, my case manager from the immigration support organization asked me about my background, and I walked her through everything. She was truly amazed at my Fellowship experience! She asked if I was still interested in teaching, and when I said of course, she helped me enroll in college and supported me in building my resume here.

My experience at TAO was the backbone of that resume. It was proof of what I had done, what I was capable of. Because of it, I was never without work after I arrived in the US. I got back into  teaching as soon as I could, first as a teacher assistant at a Montessori school, then as the Lead Teacher at YMCA of the East Bay, and now also as Lead Teacher at Alameda Family Service. I have been employed in education continuously since I arrived.

I also completed a certificate in early childhood development from Berkeley City Colloge. And I am now studying business and computer science on the side. I want to keep going.

What is your hope for Afghanistan?

This is what I think about. A lot. I see children here in California and how they are raised, from the moment they are born, there is so much opportunity. They are discovering, playing, learning. Afghan children are not children in the same way right now. They are not getting to just be children.

My hope is that one day I can take everything I have learned here, everything I have experienced as a teacher, and go back and build something…build schools in Afghanistan that give children that same chance. That is what I am working toward. That is why I am pushing myself so hard here.

TAO is celebrating 10 years. If a young Afghan graduate was considering applying to the fellowship, what would you tell them?

I actually had this conversation just last week with a young man I used to teach English to in my private course. I saw that he had received a certificate from TAO for one of their activities, and I told him directly: go for it. Apply. This is a path that will introduce you to yourself, that will show you what you are capable of. You will discover opportunities you did not know existed.

I am so proud to have been a fellow. It shaped my journey in ways I am still discovering. And I would do it again without a second thought. I cannot express how grateful I am to Teach For Afghanistan for shaping me and my life so positively. Thank you and Happy 10th Anniversary, TAO! 

Liza's story does not end in Afghanistan, and it does not end in California either. It is still being written, one classroom at a time.