Student Spotlight: Cengiz Cemaloglu

Cengiz Cemaloglu is a Senior in Currier House, pursuing a joint concentration in Social Anthropology and Government with a Secondary in Philosophy. He is originally from Baku, Azerbaijan and lived in Istanbul, Turkey and Hong Kong growing up. At PBHA, Cengiz is in the Chinatown Citizenship program where students teach individuals, mostly senior citizens, the information to pass their American citizenship test. As a person, who has moved between places, thanks to welcoming laws and regulations, Cengiz is a huge advocate of mobility and open opportunities for all. Hence, he says that working with Chinese senior citizens who are working so diligently to become American citizens is a huge joy for him. Here, he is able to use his years of Chinese education to explain complicated phenomena like amendments, freedom of religion, house of representatives to his students. As non-American, he says that he learn as much as he teaches. He recounts: one of my students is 88 years old, and she studies the hardest, revises the material every night, and comes very prepared to each class - she truly inspires me. The biggest lesson he has learned through his experience in PBHA is that one should never stop learning, never stop trying, never stop hoping.