In early August, Natalya Ilyinichna Matveyeva, senior lecturer of the Department of Environment and Chemical Technologies, celebrates two anniversaries at once:  its 70th anniversary and 15 years of work at InEU.

The figures seem to be significant and huge but, In fact, in front of us is a sweet, attentive, very energetic middle-aged woman.  Experienced teacher, mentor of young people, smart colleague and great hard-working person. She is always on the lookout for work. Leo Tolstoy gave this definition to a good teacher, « … it is enough for a the teacher to have only two qualities: - great knowledge and a big heart.» Natalya Ilyinichna has both in abundance: talent, warm-heartedness, methodological skills, erudition, sensitivity, patience and just inexhaustible energy. 

According to Natalia Ilyinichna, this is all thanks to her father, Ilya Platonovich Matveyev, who was a jack of all trades. He inspired his baby: you must work so that not only you are the best at work, but the whole enterprise where you work becomes the first and the best.» This parting word “red thread” was laid by Natalia Ilyinichna along the whole line of life.

- I am from a large working-class family, by 1952 only six of eleven children remained. Father was a mechanic, worked as a drill foreman. Mother - Theodosia Terentyevna - was a housewifeThey are both from Shemonaikha of the East Kazakhstan region from dispossessed families, so there was no opportunity to learn from them. My father graduated from only four classes, but he had fundamental knowledge, and he had clever pair of hands: he knew the mechanisms, the carpentry, and the electrician.  Mom, despite the hectic household, read a lot, loved to listen to operas and operettas, though only on records. They gave higher education to all six children: in our family there are teachers, doctors, and engineers.

From the story of Natalia Ilyinichna, to my surprise, it became clear that in her youth, this “plucky” girl  did not particularly strive. She wanted to quickly become an independent adult.

- I am the fifth child, followed by my younger brother, three years younger. The household was large, the elders went to school, and I was the main assistant in the house. Boyish fun: we drove a bicycle, on a motor boat, swam the Irtysh .. My father taught me everything: to mow, and plan, and saw, and solder … By the principle: what the eye fears, the hands do. 

Any business that she undertook, Natalya Ilyinichna did not do from under constraint, but with dexterity and interest. After school, she went to work at the Pavlodar sewing factory named after March 8. She says she earned twice as much as her friends. Constantly introduced some improvements, knew all the professions of the factory, the whole technological process. At the age of 19, she became a member of the party, deputy of the city council, chairman of the trade union committee. Portraits have been preserved within the framework that were hung, as a production leader, on the city, regional Board of Honor. She was elected as delegate to the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. Here is such a hard worker and  an activist! But I think that this is primarily the curious, restless nature of Natalia Ilyinichna, an insatiable thirst to comprehend the new, and, of course, father’s command.

- The salary is excellent, I was married already, gave birth to a son. Why do I need higher education? I thought. By that time, I had already worked for 11 years. But at the factory our management changed, a new director came - Miteyko Nina Vasilievna. She gathered the best girls of workers and said: It is necessary! And I went to study.

In 1982, Natalia Ilyinichna graduated from the Dzhambul Technological Institute of Light and Food Industries, majoring in engineer-economist, with a qualification in Economics and Organization of Enterprises for the Production of Consumer Goods. She defended the diploma with excellent marks and was appointed deputy head of the planning department of the factory. However, the work in the planning department seemed to energetic Natalia too steady and calm. Not for her restless nature. So she laid off herself.

- They gave me the first task: to calculate the technical industrial plan. A month has not passed, I brought it right to the chief. At first he was simply surprised. Then i calculated that three people are enough for the effective work of the planning department, the other three should be laid off  and me firstI advised to give these rates to technologists. 

Natalya Ilinichna referred the calculations to the factory director. The director took into account the proposal and ... transferred a certified economist as an engineer in new technology and rationalization. 

- That was interesting! - says Natalia Ilyinichna. - I concluded contracts with research institutes, ordered new production lines, wrote out the latest equipment “PFAFF”, “Dzhuki”, which sewed and swept immediately. The performance was crazy. It was not boring, and you could immediately see your work. In addition, the factory created a small enterprise Kazakhstan - Germany - Canada, which also brought profit. It went on to develop the enterprise and infrastructure. I was elected the ex-chairman of the trade union committee. Here it was not boring. The factory at that moment employed more than a thousand people. Our production was profitable, and therefore we built a lot: a new factory building, a kindergarten, a dormitory, cooperative housing. With our "girls", who are now retired, we now meet, keep in touch, so they still remember and thank me.
In 1991, difficult times began for the whole industry, and the factory named "March 8" was no exception, production stopped. Everyone was unemployed.

- My husband taught higher mathematics at the university, the salary there was delayed for six months. I have children in my arms, then the second son was six years old - it was necessary to somehow survive. At the family council, we decided to move to the village.

A new stage in the life of Natalia Ilyinichna has begun. The stage is difficult, but equally interesting and stormy. A house was bought in the village of Grigoryevka on the banks of the IrtyshHaving moved with children and households, the restless Natalya Ilyinichna immediately began to “make a nest”: first they bought one cow, then the second, they planted smaller animals, a garden and a garden, harvesting food, and other rural joys. All this required time, care and considerable effort. However, the household was not enough for Natalia Ilyinichna. She went to work at a local school. It was 1993, then many specialists, teachers left, some to Germany, some to Russia. The school needed personnel: a shop teacher, a historian, a geographer. Natalya Ilinichna, having passed qualification training, taught history, geography, valeology, economic culture, and Industrial Arts.

 - I knew all these things quite well myself. I never undertook the fact that I do not know, for example, chemistry or physics. She taught Industrial Arts. Girls learned to sew, knit. You know, in the 90s there was nothing, so my students were happy to needlework, sewed skirts, dresses, swimwear, knitted socks. The boys, under my leadership, planed, sawed, learned to work on carpentry, lathes. They made the necessary household items: stretchers, stools, birdhouses. Father’s science was very useful to me in every way.

In addition to the lessons, Natalya Ilyinichna and her children were engaged in diverse research work. Before leaving for Germany, her colleague Sherman gave her the documents of the school KID-club of international friendship. And in them Natalya Ilyinichna discovered information that the Grigoryevskaya school has a great history and was built in 1900. We decided to check this informationWe turned to the regional archive, to the museum of local lore, but found no confirmation anywhere. Local historian Ernest Sokolkin advised me to go to Omsk. It was there, in the archive, that it was possible to find out that a separate school building was built in 1900, and the school itself was founded in 1873 at a public house. Having collected a large amount of information, historical documents and exhibits, a local history museum was opened at the school, registered by all the rules. And in 2003, the Grigoryevskaya School widely celebrated its 130th anniversary, with the invitation of foreign guests and the receipt of gifts useful for the educational process.

- In our school museum of local lore, the whole history of the region was presented, from the time of the saber-toothed tigers to the present day. Indeed, in Grigoryevka there is Krasny Yar - the second “Goose Flight”, the burial place of the Kaimaks and Kipchaks of the 7th-8th centuries. The kids and I found clay shards, animal bones, silver jewelry and even a sword. I took our findings to the historian Arthur Karlovich Merz at the institute. He was delighted and organized an expedition. My students also took part in archaeological excavations. Their joy knew no bounds. Our school museum of local lore in 2005 took the first place among the schools of the region, and in 2006 - in the republic. Unfortunately, little is left of this museum right now.

Natalia Ilyinichna was not used to giving up. Here is another story confirming the perseverance and determination of our hero of the day. In 1997, the school leadership changed. A certain lady has come - let's call her Sairan Akhtanovna. She first fired all the staff, hiring her relatives. Then she got to the teachers. Natalia Ilyinichna was also going to be dismissed by the new director, motivating this by the fact that she does not have pedagogical education. But, as they say, they ran into the wrong one. 

- I decided to get a second higher education - pedagogical. I arrived in Pavlodar, at the institute, and met Vera Konstantinovna Omarova there, head of the department. She says: why do you need a second higher, go to graduate school. It was only opened then, in 1998. I entered and in the 2000th, at the age of 50, I received a red diploma from the Master of Education and Psychology. There was nothing for the director to cover, and I was left to teach at school, the only master in the Grigoryevsky school. By the way, I’m even grateful to the director who wanted to fire me, - laughs Natalya Ilinichnа.

It is worth noting that in parallel with teaching, school passions and studies at the magistracy, Natalya Ilyinichna not only did not abandon her household, but also developed. For these purposes, she even took a loan from Agroprombank. 

- I drove eleven goals into the herd, ”the hero of the day proudly says. - And there was her own horse, and rams, and Angora goats, and hens, geese. To the question: who served all this? The surprised answer followed: I, basically. The husband worked in the city, they came with their sons more on weekends. They helped, of course, but in 2005 - the husband ordered: we return to the city.

Having moved to Pavlodar, Natalia Ilyinichna came to work at InEU at the department, which was then called “Agribusiness and Ecology”, it was headed by Lyudmila Ivanovna Proskurina.  

- InEU - it was a whole new level. I am very grateful for the support of Sholpan Shopievna Khamzina, Tatyana Evseevna Zatvornitskaya, Elena Mikhailovna Enss, Marina Mikhailovna Poukh and all the colleagues who immediately accepted me into their friendly team. In InEU, I immediately felt in my own place. 

Now Natalia Ilyinichna teaches ecology and life safety, labor protection, fire safety, ecology of transport and urban networks, emergency and rescue business at the Department of Environment and Chemical Technologies. Important qualities of her personality are fullness of vitality, energy of goodness, perseverance in achieving the goals. She generously shares all this with her students. And the results speak for themselves. Its students annually among the winners and prize-winners of international subject and Internet Olympiads, graduates occupy leading positions in organizations in which they work. Students of Natalia Ilyinichna say that they were uniquely lucky with the teacher. She is sure that you can teach only what is interesting to yourself. 

- I believe that a sincere and not selfish interest of a teacher in the process of knowledge transfer is a prerequisite. If the subject or the learning process is not interesting to the teacher himself or herself, he or she will not be able to interest students as a result.  The pedagogical work of Natalia Ilyinichna was marked by a large number of prizes, letters, diplomas, letters of thanks from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, employers and the university.

Dear Natalya Ilinichna! Congratulations on your anniversary birthday! Let your teaching talent, generosity remain a light for your students and colleagues for a long time. Accept from us the sincere wishes of all the best: health, great human happiness, all earthly blessings.