🏖️ Born in Atlantic City and raised in Pomona, New Jersey, USA, I'm a 3rd-generation international educator, 2nd-generation Turkish American (dual citizen of the US and Türkiye), and 1st-generation simultaneous bilingual (native speaker of both English and Turkish). I began my career in Türkiye in 2006 at the age of 22. In 2007, I set up and supervised a TOEFL iBT® test center for US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), and in 2008, I ran a language school as the manager and director of studies. I continued my teaching and education management career at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), where I served as a lead instructor and was twice awarded "Outstanding Faculty." I hold a BA in English Language and Literature from Ankara University, an English Language Teaching (ELT) credential from Ege University, and an MA in Education, TESOL Option from CSUSB, where I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was awarded "Outstanding Student of the Year." 🌎 I've had the invaluable opportunity to teach to—and thus learn from—culturally and linguistically diverse learners from 52 countries, namely Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, the UAE, Ukraine, the US, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam. I've also trained/supervised teachers from Algeria, Brazil, Canada, China, Ghana, Iran, Malawi, Mexico, Romania, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Türkiye, the UK, and the US. Prior to teaching cross-culturally, I've traveled extensively during my formative years, which enabled me to develop a global mindset and intercultural competence; I've spent about a year in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, and the UK. 🍎 My teaching methods are based on fun, cooperative, and collaborative activities that maximize student talk time, autonomy, and creativity. And as a firm believer in the crucial leadership role of educators in promoting human rights, my professional interests include critical discourse analysis and critical pedagogy. Through teaching, I aim to make a meaningful impact on the strive for an equally empowered coexistence and peaceful international community.